Mass Immigration, scare mongering??

[Flickstix]

Am I being unreasonable to think it is a problem or am I just falling prey to media propaganda? The whole EU debate seems to have highlighted it but I would like to understand it better.

That's just really scary....

In a way I admire the people who come here and take full advantage of our healthcare and benefits system.
If you came from a very poor background, and you knew that your child was sick and your country's health system was woefully inadequate, would you uproot your family, go to another country and claim asylum so your child could have care? I would.
And given the same background, and amount of child benefit given in the Uk would mean your child having a warm coat, hot food, an education. If all you had to do to receive a weekly amount paid into your bank account was to come to the uk with the kids and live for a while. Would you do it? I would.

Thanks Lay, so all these people who say immgration is fine. What would you feel if you were at the top of the list and then found your potential property had been given to someone who had just landed...

Blimey - this is scary stuff. Dont want to reveal too much but the two countries shortly to join the EU will cause chaos. I did some work around the orphanages and let me tell you - it will live with me forever. Money that was been given to help us never got there. It was stolen along the way and colleagues would say it was because it was the culture. They didnt have much either so felt there was no issue in not passing everything on.

Is that right Mosman

I worked in sydney in a many offices mainly finance in (year 2000 that is 12 years ago not 50) I never once worked with an indigenous person the only ones i did see were cleaners. I returned to Australia last year again saw very little change and the attitude towards indigenous people that many have had not changed either. what is law and what actually happens and how figures can be twisted.

Australia is renowned for having backward attitudes towards immigrants which is joke considering the history of the country

I once had an argument discussion with SIL who thinks anyone on benefits is a scrounger who doesn't want to work and buys into the DM version of that issue but also believes we need lots of immigrants because of it.
Immigration has always happened, populations shift and it adds to the rich culture here but there has to be a saturation level.
I suggested that instead of wholesale importing cheap labour we should be dealing with
WHY benefits can and does mean more income,
WHY large companies with millions( thinking supermarkets, multinationals etc) in profit every year are allowed to pay staff such a low wage top ups are needed,
WHY the same system prevents those who can and want to do overtime/improve their skills and take small rises lose money and it causes havoc with top up benefits etc.
WHY we have skill shortages and so on.
Its useless to say that people should have pride, pride is no use to pay bills! It is the system that needs to be dealt with. Individuals will do whats best for themselves and their families.
WHY companies prefer to use foreign workers
Why are asylum claims dealt with here? I'm not aware that any immediate neighbouring countries are a danger therefore we are not the first safe country for anyone. Therefore unless it is agreed with the first safe country that they can come here they are economic migrants. We should continue to do so for those in genuine peril but assessed for suitability.
Anyone coming here from anywhere should have means to pay for housing/health/education. Insurance schemes should be used. Companies wanting staff will work it into their pay packages. Low pay workers should secure employment through labour centres in their own countries and it should be verified that the work cannot be fulfilled with local labour.
It is not racist or zenophobic to say that mass immigration is not welcomed by many.It effects all that live here. Could we sustain the population if there was war/disaster etc?
If we cannot provide housing/jobs for the existing poluation how can we absorb more?
Any immigrant found guilty of crime should be immediately deported,regardless of status we have enough of our own criminals to fill prisons.
IE I will get to the point.... It needs to be managed to maximise the benefits to the country.

Council home/accomodation - the local authority foots the bill for either.It would almost be better if the families were given a council home. It would cost a damn sight less than the amount of money that local authorities are paying to private hostels and hotels, but that's a different matter all together.
No I don't think it's fair that people who have been working in the country for years are pushed further and further down the housing list.
I fear for the state of this country in the next 5-10 years. I'm extremely lucky, we applied for a visa to migrate to Australia a few years ago, and after we lived there for a period to validate it, we can now go back with definite leave to remain. But we will still be unable to claim any benefits on landing there. Quite rightly so.

A few days ago some teachers were complaining about how they are losing their wonderful pensions and would have to work til 102. That is why you need immigrants to work here and support the elderly.

NumericalMum that is utter balls. The vast majority of immigrants do not make a net contribution. We have always had immigration of highly skilled workers, that is what we need, not mass immigration of unskilled and semi-skilled people.

slug Fri 25-Jan-13 16:56:09
"Well I'm an immigrant. I'm also a higher rate tax payer and occasional NHS user.

Because, until I speak, I'm indistinguishable from the native population, I sometimes sit at bus stops listening to the conversations about immigrants and how they are destroying the UK and wonder if it would be safe to open my mouth. This has got far, far worse under the coalition government. "

Same here. Except I can sometimes get away with it even when speaking.

When dh and I were getting married we did debate the possibility of settling in my country instead. Then it would have been he who was the mythical benefit scrounger and had people grudge him health treatment etc etc.

A few years ago I was offered a job in a third EU- so we could both have been scroungers.

iet35 Fri 25-Jan-13 18:35:41
"NumericalMum that is utter balls. The vast majority of immigrants do not make a net contribution. "

Could we perhaps have some figures to prove this?

no we need our own population to work rather than being unemployed and some of the immigrants who are already here who don't seem to ever be made to get a job and just keep on having babies.

What would you feel if you were at the top of the list and then found your potential property had been given to someone who had just landed...

I don't understand this whole "list" thing, anyway, isn't it about having a different property you prefer, not actually keeping folk off the streets? What happens currently, does the person who was top of the list become homeless for a long spell as a result, thrown out on the streets? Why don't I see their pictures on front page of the paper every day? I think there's another outcome.

Where I come from the vulnerable end up in private rented accommodation or shelters until rented accommodation can be found. This idea of "lists" is still very foreign to me.

Why are the government not too bothered about this though, do they know something we don't?

You don't go on a 'list' now, you have to bid on council accommodation and it goes to the person with the highest need (most DC etc).

You will get put up in emergency B&B accommodation until you find somewhere, but I think most people get housing benefit now, so you chose a private rental and then get your rent paid.

This is how it works for British people so I imagine it's the same for EU immigrants, someone correct me if I'm wrong!

alemci
"no we need our own population to work rather than being unemployed"

do you think people should be forced to work (wherever they came from)? And what about able-bodied Britons who have never payed into the system, should they get benefits?

x post mrsdevere

MrsDeVere Fri 25-Jan-13 19:00:04
"I would like figures on all the immigrants who have never worked and keep having babies. "

They're the ones that keep taking all our jobs, innit?

Mosman, don't start me on Australia. Their treatment of kiwi migrants is disgraceful. I can't imagine they are any better to aboriginals.

so you chose a private rental and then get your rent paid

And that is how you get the stories of people landing in Kensington town houses and the council picking up the rent. It's appalling when you think that your whole year's council tax is possibly being swallowed up in one person's weekly rent (or in the case of central London - one day's rent!).

The people making out like bandits out of immigration are landlords.

I would say to the people who want open borders - ok, you have a Roma family share your house.

They will pay the average for the area, for the size of your family. Although I think it has been reduced slightly over the last month, if you are short you can still apply for a discretionary payment to top it up.

I don't think I could give you figures as lets face it who would publish it. Probably would be burnt at the stake as a heretic as you would probably like to do to me.

I have worked in education and so has my mother. My friend worked in a local secondary school and even the kids of immigrants commented that they thought their parents should work and were very lucky to be given everything for free. some of them had lived in other European countries for a while and then come here next when the first country no longer gave them any free accommodation or they couldn't secure work and had to move on.

Another lady I knew worked in a health clinic for people with babies (can't think of terminology . Her and her husband moved away out of area because they were so sick of new arrivals getting free baby milk etc and their perceived grasping attitude. Always had the latest mobile phones etc. (sorry I know it sounds like the flat screen analogy). She couldn't understand why they couldn't buy the mikl themselves. Also they felt that the area was changing for the worst.

Also what about all the people being exploited living in sheds in certain areas and then the landlords pretending no one lives there and not paying any council tax. Too much immmigration is causing this problem as well.

also the HB for the Roma still comes out the treasury. Taxpayers are still paying for them.

People talk about this subject constantly because most people who may have been tolerant say 20 years' ago (I was) have seen too much change in their local areas and feel invaded.

Yes I think able Britains should work hence we don't need any more people coming.