Immigration, how did we get here?

I don't think those banging on about a life of leisure on benefits, realise firstly how much you get and secondly, how difficult they are to keep.

I would like to think you are trolling. However, I suspect not. You really have no idea if you believe what you have posted as it's an absolute pack of garbage

Even in the 80s a lot of hotel and restaurants staff were spanish or Italian. That's no different.
Universities are not responsible for this at all.

Yes but is that one person who for all you know has their own prejudices or is it fact and if so how prevalent is it? It’s like the mythical perfectly ok people who say they are autistic and then get a “free” car. Thats not how it really works in practice.

There was also a business man or woman on the TV saying that they kept inviting unemployed people for interviews but a lot didn't turn up or turned up and performed deliberately badly. They said that no-one ever contacted them to find out if the people turned up for the interview.

I live in Europe. No one wants to come here and pick fruit or wait tables either. Staff are from Nepal largely. The problems here are the same in uk despite what everyone who voted remain thinks.

Does people can just sign and get money from the government? If so that may be part of the reason.

I can see why it matters because the housing and services are not infinite. Basically, people being paid to do nothing still use services and need houses. People coming to do the unwanted jobs also need the same services and housing. Hopefully now with a new government a honest conversation can be started. Otherwise, it is going to be the same ever.

The rest of Europe have all of Europe to source staff. We no longer do!
Benefits are too high and full time work is not 'necessary' if people don't want it to be.
Stupid benefit rules ... if you earn over x you get a 55% reduction in benefit.
Cost of childcare is too high/quality not always good which puts off women returners.
People who can are retiring earlier, particularly those hit by high earner pension tax rules.

It doesn't matter to me, but it may well matter to the countries losing those skills.

I don’t know the stats but I assumed net gain during your working years?
So if you picked up trained working adults surely they contribute overall?

But it’s not just old age care- it’s everything. It’s not about benefits but rather the benefit of being in the U.K. and no I don’t believe many of us, immigrant or otherwise are net contributors once the time we have children. So really it’s a false economy to pay foreign workers crap wages to come over here and take on such jobs.

I think a lot has to do with low wages and 0 hours contract... Who can realistically live like that?
Especially when UC gives more stability and you don't have to worry about being pulled up or sanctioned because you're always short on hours.

I've got a colleague like it, 21, not educated past gcse, lives like a 14yr old, does less than 20 hours work a week, no ambition, no drive, unreliable. Mum is disabled, on benefits, not working but keeps him as well.

If you live in my coastal town you have to earn big bucks as the prices have rocketed. Most homes are second homes.

The nearest town from us is 8 miles away. Even there house prices aren't cheap but they are slightly more affordable and there is some rental property. However to work in our town they have to drive and pay to park all day (upwards of £10) or catch public transport (which is rare but does exist in the day but not later at night)

People here that have done OK for themselves and are now over 50 are retiring early, or at least going part time and enjoying their spare time - not working.

Any business in our town needing employees is stuck sourcing them from an ever dwindling pool of people.

I can only imagine many places are even worse - like St Ives where almost every house is a second home or holiday let and the very local.population providing a workforce getting smaller and smaller.

I have a number of friends with children in their twenties and early thirties. They went to university came home and only work part time. One does two days a week as a carer, the other works at Tesco for a few hours. Neither have any ambition to learn to drive, or to move out. They live at home like an adult teenager and spend what they earn on themselves.

there seems to be a big increase in people not working a full 36 hour week. Even when the hours are available to them they drift along living hand to mouth rather than working hard when they are younger so that they have savings and a pension for the future.

Where did you read that? That sounds rubbish. Here they definitely check and coach you in interview technique and give you advice on where to look.

From what I remember,
There was a stigma about being on the dole, so people in the main, wanted to work.
White collar jobs = more respectable than blue collar jobs = more respectable than being on dole.
Lots of jobs that were white/blue collar were 9-5 turn up do repetitive tasks and then leave and if you didn't want to work there, then you could get another of these jobs the next week. These jobs have been automated or outsourced.
People retired earlier which also freed up jobs.
High qualifications to do basic white/blue collar jobs not expected previously.
Gap in living between being on the dole and working, (even minimum wage) appeared more significant, incentivising working.
Appeared to be progression within a company when starting at the bottom which then annoyed graduates who were put at same level as people who had come 'from the bottom'.

I'm echoing a lot already said so won't parrot it, but also the inflexible nature of benefits. Hospitality, care, retail, and other low pay employers want flexibility, different hours nearly weekly, and the employee needs state top-up because the wages are sub realistic to live on. If wages fluctuate, your benefits end up wrong, and if you are overpaid, they want it back.. It's far too stressful for a low paid job. It should, in this day and age, be easy to upload changes to shifts/ wages and benefits automatically recalculated.

Low birth rate for decades plus large segment of the population being over age 60 is why we need immigrants to fill in the vacant spots so our demographics are not an upside down pyramid. There are plenty of local workers in those categories OP, there simply are not enough because not enough British children were born decades ago to fill these jobs now.

Most of Europe is in the same boat.

Lack of investment and training. We have shortages in key skill areas such as engineering and IT. Lack of a living wage, many people can't afford to feed their family and keep a roof over their head on minimum wage.

Lack of government funded bursaries. We have a severe nursing shortage for example and they have to pay for their training and are very low paid. Nurses also used to hit the ground running and train on the wards, now it's degree based.

Too many people go to university instead of moving into apprenticeships. Lack of affordable childcare and places. Lack of support for working mothers.

I've read that people only have to show that they have applied for jobs. No-one checks if they attend interviews so they are very unlikely to be offered a job.

I was on the come in student holidays.

Had a ball.

I was also unemployed ( high youth unemployment in the 80’).

Dole wasn’t available if you were sacked but you didn’t have to look for jobs like now. That came in later.

Late 80’s/early 90’s

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · Today 12:09
AzureAnt · Today 11:51
There are way too many economically inactive working age people in this country.
I remember the days when if you refused jobs within your capabilities, your state handouts were stopped.
Perhaps it's time to bring this back
And start clamping down on the massive benefit fraud as well
I’m 60. I don’t remember this.

I am a bit older, and did a stint in the civil service - dole as it was called then.
It was ridiculously easy to opt out of work - we were known as dole-on- sea, because people came down, rented for the season and sat on the beach all day.
Certainly no one here in Kent was checking up on your work ability.
It changed a little in the 80's when people were sent on training courses.

100% this. I used to be a cleaner and I'll never forget two young girls joining and honestly believing that they were far too good to have to clean a bathroom. Alot of the menial jobs are definitely looked down on and it's right that people who have no qualifications or skills expect to earn a massive wage from the get go 🤷