According to the Daily Mail a substantial number, “probably
tens of thousands”, of the 300,000 foreign students who come to the UK every
year “are economic migrants seeking a back door into the UK”. Indeed, net
migration into the UK remains stubbornly above 200,000 a year, supported by
sham colleges and the incompetent management of London Metropolitan University.
Good.
It’s about time we all woke up to the fact that immigration
is a good thing. Some polls show that 80% of us support the government’s target
to reduce net immigration to tens of thousands every year. I am not one of
them. While the Daily Mail is right that immigration places some additional
burden on public services like education and housing, it is wrong about
everything else. 80% of the country, including the Prime Minister and his
Government, are wrong about immigration.
Immigrants have, for centuries, provided tremendous impetus
to our economy and our culture. This is more than just curries and Mo Farah.
Immigration is a part of the fabric of our nation. While it is now a cliché to
assert that most of the UK population are descended from immigrants, it is rare
for the importance of this fact to be considered seriously. It is not just an
accusation of hypocrisy. It tells us something important about who we are and
what binds us together as occupants of this small island on the edge of Europe.
Almost every family tree contains members who have come from abroad in search
of a better life. They have come from Italy and Spain under the Romans; Sweden,
Norway and Denmark with the Vikings; France with the Normans, the Huguenots and
after their Revolution; Holland after the Glorious Revolution; from Africa as
slaves; Ireland after English conquest; India, Pakistan, Hong Kong and the rest
of the Empire as it was built and dismantled; Jews have fled from persecution
elsewhere and too often found little better here; Poles and even Germans stayed
after the War; Ugandan Asians were sent here by Idi Amin and immigrants from
the Caribbean crossed the Atlantic for a better life; South Africans fled
Apartheid and most recently people from Eastern Europe, having thrown off the
yoke of the Soviet Union have come here to find jobs as members of the European
Union. Throughout there has been a steady stream of arrivals and departures
fuelled by the UK’s position as a centre of world trade.
That list is long but by no means exhaustive. Almost none
have been invited. They have come as conquerors, entrepreneurs and refugees. Many
have been subjected to racism, suspicion, abuse and oppression on their
arrival. Yet they have all made their mark on our economy, our culture and most
particularly our language. That the UK is a microcosm of the world feeds our
belief that the UK is at the centre of the world. Immigration is fundamental to
our national psyche.
And yet all this would be irrelevant if today’s immigration
brought none of those benefits. This, however, is plainly false. Immigration’s
opponents live with the curious contradiction that immigrants both take our
jobs and sponge off benefits. Both cannot be universally true.
It is true that many immigrants are willing to work harder
for less money than their British born competition. They fill tedious positions
performing manual labour picking fruit and waiting tables for the minimum wage –
jobs many Britons flat out refuse to do. Without them, businesses across the
country would be unable to compete and thousands of management and administrative
jobs would be lost. When they have finished their degrees (paying handsomely
for the opportunity) they stop waiting tables and take graduate jobs where
their extra languages and knowledge of different cultures in part offsets the
UK’s dreadful failure to teach these to our own kids. Many immigrants bring
with them energy and entrepreneurial zeal, injecting the British economy with
new products and ways of doing things. This innovation drives our economy
forward and keeps us competitive internationally. It is true that many ‘native’
Brits do this too but the added spice from those who have undergone tremendous
hardship to make a better life for themselves brings a welcome boost. They
become sportsmen and women, actors, playwrights and authors, reinvigorating our
cultural scene and supporting the UK as an international tourist destination.
In addition to their domestic benefits, they support Britain’s
interests abroad as well. That the UK is known as the country that sheltered Mo
Farah and enabled him to achieve buys us goodwill amongst the people of
Somalia. A marginal benefit, perhaps, but potentially important in the battle
against al-Shabaab’s al-Qaeda infused attempts at radicalisation in that part
of the world. Similarly, when David Cameron is defending Britain’s interests in
Europe, is it not easier for him to find allies when the Polish Premier knows
that scores of his citizens are as dependent on the UK economy as we are?
There are costs to immigration, undoubtedly. Some control of
immigration is necessary but the levels advocated by the current government are
crazy. We should take as many immigrants as we can accommodate. None of their
costs would be higher if we embraced them and many would be lower. There would
be less temptation, for example, to hide from the state and live in the black
economy. We should change our minds and welcome immigrants as the tonic this
country has benefited from for centuries.
