Is this partly why countries need immigration ?

I'm glad you said that because that was confusing me as well! 😂

Spot on. I think this sums up much of the immigration debate really.

Yes its the "megacorps" that support the mass immigration we see. Cheap labour. Bigger profits.

And it doesn't justify replacement of the current population and them becoming a minority in their own country

Plus when the indigenous try to talk about the issues, they are told to pipe down or called 'far right'.

Blair's dream of most kids going to university blew up in our face. He dreamed they could sit in a classroom and go to lectures to be indoctrinated by lefty professors (another issue facing us now) while we import cheap EU labour, tradesmen and low paid folk to fill our working class jobs. Employers could screw them down to the lowest wages and being from poor East European countries, they didn't complain. School leavers were told they were too good to do those roles. Why do you need a trade? Go and sit in a classroom.

Our youngsters left university with massive debt for mickey mouse degrees, the majority of which never paid it back ie the tax payer (you and I) paid it for them. They didnt start their careers until age 25 and then moan that mum or gran had a deposit at age 27 to put towards a house, but mum or gran had been in work since 16.

All the while we were forced to accept unfettered EU immigration which caused issues. A block was put on that. Then we had the Boris wave.

Your average Brit is fed up. Selective immigration is fine. Unfettered immigration will ruin the UK.

And it doesn't justify replacement of the current population and them becoming a minority in their own country

Exactly. It doesn’t justify letting in hundreds of thousands of young men, many of them violent criminals. Nor does it justify exploiting the student visa system.

When immigration occurs on a small scale, and you are highly selective, it really can benefit a country. After all, T. S. Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Freddie Mercury, Clive James and Sigmund Freud were all immigrants. But an illiterate, unskilled drug dealer does NOT enrich your country, and anyone who says he does is a brainwashed lunatic.

Also, when those who come have an affection for your culture (loving Jane Austen and Monty Python, etc), you can maintain a sense of identity. However, when the people you let in either know nothing about your country or, frankly, hate it, then you’ve got a problem. Immigration has destroyed my identity. I no longer live in a country with a shared history and shared culture.

Young people are struggling to afford to rent or buy a house. How are they meant to afford nursery fees so they can have a family? As far as I can tell, the government are quite happy for them to remain unemployed and living with parents. I suppose people who were born here will die out eventually leaving no children. And that will be the end of that. Just don't expect the litter to be picked up.

I think you are missing the point. It isn’t about living longer it’s about Japanese people having less children and not being able to sustain what the have based on the current population decline.

It isn’t a failure but will have serious implications on society in future.

You say 'problem'. What exactly is the problem?

The UK invested in these people by expending the FE and HE system far enough to get half the country educated to degree level.

so
a - what were they really being taught and
b - where are they?

But it will become a problem when the vast percentage of them are elderly.

Yes, people live longer in Japan. How fucking amazing is that?

I do not see how this is a failure.

We have a skills mismatch. Not enough plumbers, electricians, chefs, engineers, teachers (maths, chemistry, physics, computer science), doctors and nurses maybe. Plus virtually no British people seem to want to work in care homes, hospitality or picking veg.

To be fair it is well known and documented that Japan has very very low levels of immigration and has an aging population. A lot of the country is devoted to taking care of older people as there aren’t enough younger people to do so.

Well there are lots of reasons why the economy is not growing. Some if it is the global landscape and therefore out of our control, and some is our own policy. It would be surprising if you could make one change and solve everything.

The UK always seems to have had low productivity levels and low investment levels compared with other countries, Brexit has made trade to our biggest export market more difficult and costly, after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, energy become very expensive, the Bank of England has put interest rates up a lot in the last few years so making borrowing more expensive, the furlough scheme was necessary but cost a fortune. I’m sure there are numerous other factors but these are a few that spring to mind. We may well be in a worse position without immigration - certainly the NHS would be.

Seems odd to call for more young adults when I read recently we have 700,000 graduates looking for work.
Keep importing more migrants who will do the jobs for low money until they get access to citizenship and better options then import some more?
I would rather a sensible assessment of what it costs the country to import people rather than just what it costs the companies, the councils and the universities when it’s restricted.

First we have to identify if there is a problem facing 'developed' countries in the first place and what that problem actually is.

So?

Japan seems fine without your intervention.

@GasperyJacquesRoberts "How do you feel about British citizens who are draining society rather than contributing to it?"

And how do you feel about the mega corporations, the billionaires and the Royal Family who dodge tax on an astronomically immoral scale? But to answer your original question, is your answer really to import more small scale tax dodgers and benefit claimants from all over the world?

Immigrants get old and need care and pensions eventually too.
Immigrant community birth rates also fall in line with the native population after a couple of generations.
Mass immigration is not a long term solution to the problem developed countries are facing.
The problem is exacerbated by importing low skilled workers who are not net contributors to the economy.
Thats without getting into the cultural time bomb we are lighting the fuse on.

UK growth is stagnant and we've had record immigration over the past 5 years. I'm not anti immigration but the UK evidence shows it doesn't help grow the economy.

They are citizens, and arseholes as well.
No need to import any more though, is there?

That isn’t the topic here. Is it. Sick of whatsboutery.

Good point and not something I can answer in a lot of detail. Little or no growth might still matter because the structure of the population is changing - so an ever increasing proportion of elderly retired people and an ever decreasing proportion of working people. Elderly people cost the country a lot of money in pensions, social services and healthcare and don’t often contribute to the ecomomy.

So then, the government has to increase taxes or borrowing.

With a shrinking workforce, employers may be struggling to recruit, thus shrinking tbe economy further.

So, an inbalance in working age people versus non-working people is a problem. One possible solution is immigration because that can improve the balance.

If the population is not growing, why does the economy need to grow? Is there not a sustainable, middle of the road model between communist and capitalist?