Quote:
Originally Posted by [Phill]
This is what I mean about ignorance and being afraid of mythical immigrants that dont exist. The Rotherham case and the extremists such as the 7/7 bombers were British! It is racism that because someone is white they are "not British" which is causing most of the problems with immigration.
Britain would be able to take the best and brightest from all over the world if there were no cap on migrants. That is the point! Immigration caps are not effective.
The welfare system needs immigrants, if it wasnt for immigrants the NHS, which voters see as the number one or number two issue every single election, would grind to a hault in fact.
Competition for jobs in the min wage is a myth. Every single immigrant in Europe including Bulgaria, Romania and Poland can travel to Britain tomorrow to apply for a min wage job. They dont. Min wage jobs dont attract migrants who nearly all get paid above min wage (often significantly so for low skill work like construction). Also if you are born in Britain and cant compete against a Romanian when it comes to flipping burgers or scanning barcodes I have zero sympathy.
The reality of course is that more immigration creates more jobs - the people who would "compete" are in fact being harmed by the job they could have not existing today.
Whilst I agree with some of your sentiments (much of the debate on immigration has a paranoid, xenophobic flavour), there is a real issue with working conditions for natives and it is, in part, fuelled by largely unregulated immigration. In not setting enough criteria for migrant workers, in terms of skill level and so on, we are open to waves of people who are desperate to earn money. The problem arises when these people wilfully work in poor conditions, accept low wages (sometimes below minimum wage), zero hour contracts, or the other extreme, long, borderline illegal working hours. Such people are happy to take on this kind of work because the pound has a greater currency value than that of their native country, or because there are really poor employment prospects in their native country.
Having a fluid labour market (for lower paid jobs particularly) now seems to go hand in hand with reduced powers of unions. I personally know of many people who are first and second generation immigrants who work for pittance, sometimes illegally and are simultaneously on benefits. I am persuaded by the arguments that proper controls in place to help regulate the labour market would reduce exploitation. The more people who are desperate to take on such work, the less pressure such companies are likely to experience in the realm of improving working standards.
Increasingly we see that wages are being driven down and people have less power and influence on big business. Companies like McDonald's can conduct interview days, take people on for free for a couple of weeks and dispose of those who are surplus to requirements, such is the volume of their applications.
You say you have no sympathy for those who are British and cannot compete with low or unskilled non-native workers, your sympathy is irrelevant. At some point, someone in this system will be displaced. It is important for those with little to no skills to work safely and securely and attract a wage that is sufficient for sustainable living. These people do not deserve disdain or disregard. If, on the whole, working class Britons are subject to increased competition for jobs that were formerly easy to secure, there will be a negative social impact, an increase in people on welfare, and many of the health problems associated with poor job security and adverse working conditions.