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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think 335,000 extra people coming to the UK in a year is too high

932 replies

jdoe8 · 01/12/2016 10:04

Where will they all live? What jobs will they all do? I know it may help GDP, but that is irrelevant as GDP per head is the important thing.

It does seem to be race to the bottom with more part time work , uber type work and the country is borrowing more and more and the national debt is 35k per head now.

OP posts:
OxfordStreet · 01/12/2016 17:06

Our own homeless is something that is not being factored in. Ex-soldiers, homeless young, emotionally ill people are not being given their own space, even a studio flat would be good.

Why is priority and all the assistance they can ask for being given to outsiders before our own vulnerable?

thisisafakename · 01/12/2016 17:11

I understand most are british

Local authorities actually owe duties to house homeless people. Those who are street-homeless tend to have addiction and alcohol problems which make obtaining help more difficult.

It's more complex than saying that Brits are homeless because foreigners have used up all the money and homes.

SouthallGirl · 01/12/2016 17:11

In my neck of the woods virtually every corner of several streets has had an apartment block built.

Where a large store used to stand (haberdashery, paint etc), a block of flats is going to be built. My town is going to be so claustrophobic soon it will look like something from Blue Thunder. Where a car park stood, there is going to be a council building 5 storeys high. The whole vista is changed and whereas you could feel a sense of space and openess with the carpark, now you will not be able to see anything.

FruitCider · 01/12/2016 17:13

I'm a refugee with settled status. Shock! Horror!

I've cleaned toilets, scrubbed dead skin off collars in a dry cleaners, made cardboard boxes for a living. Basically when I was younger I did all the crap jobs. Funnily enough when I was doing these crap jobs most of my colleagues were Eastern European with high levels of education. Where were these British people desperate for jobs? I didn't see any!

SouthallGirl · 01/12/2016 17:13

It's more complex than saying that Brits are homeless because foreigners have used up all the money and homes

Aahh. That's just it ...... I do not believe it is more complex. We are told it is complex and repeat it ad infinitum. It is not complex at all, it is prioritising for political reasons.

formerbabe · 01/12/2016 17:14

SouthallGirl

That sounds very similar to my area. It breaks my heart to see apartment block after apartment block being built everywhere! Yet, they never build new schools, new doctors surgeries or new hospitals!

SouthallGirl · 01/12/2016 17:16

Where were these British people desperate for jobs? I didn't see any!

They were not working, that's where they were. They were existing on JSA and doing cash-in-hand jobs. It was a failure of govt to secure them work. And to be fair to them, not all jobs like yours are advertised via the Job Centre. It's usually a card in the window.

DoinItFine · 01/12/2016 17:17

Where were these British people desperate for jobs? I didn't see any!

And so that means they don't exist?

Maybe they can't afford to work for the pay and conditions that Eastern Europeans were prepared to accept?

SouthallGirl · 01/12/2016 17:19

I'm a refugee with settled status. Shock! Horror!

There are refugees on here, and children of refugees - so let's not get carried away with our status.

FruitCider · 01/12/2016 17:21

Maybe they can't afford to work for the pay and conditions that Eastern Europeans were prepared to accept?

Can't afford to work for more than minimum wage with a guaranteed 40 hours a week? Why not? If they have no experience surely they should expect to do any job to get a reference? Isn't that how building up your employment history works? Or is it only us forriners that are expected to do this?

I got all of these jobs through employment agencies, not from a card written in Polish in a shop window, contrary to popular belief.

Manumission · 01/12/2016 17:26

I'm a refugee with settled status. Shock! Horror!

What do you mean "Shock! Horror!"? Confused

Do you mean that you think OP is....what? Racist? Fascist? Anti-refugee?

I'm really not seeing that.

FruitCider · 01/12/2016 17:29

No, although the "race to the bottom" comment in reference to people immigrating to the uk is concerning. As is the implication that there is no jobs because immigrants take them all.

Manumission · 01/12/2016 17:34

I thought 'race to the bottom' was in reference to the so-called 'flexible employment economy'. That's how it reads to me.

thisisafakename · 01/12/2016 17:36

SouthallGirl so you genuinely believe that problems such as homelessness are because we are 'full' and all the housing and medical care is redirected and prioritised to immigrants, leaving Brits homeless and jobless? The problem is that the government is refusing to fund healthcare and housing adequately and hopes that the population will start blaming 'the other' rather than the state itself. It's awfully convenient to have a scapegoat.

And none of those appartments in Southall will be bought by Polish families. More likely investors who will rake it in (permitted and encouraged by the government of course).

SouthallGirl · 01/12/2016 17:56

thisisafakename - I am not in Southall. I am talking about the town in which I live which has had a very large number of apartment blocks built - for council and social housing only, not private.

The problem is that the government is refusing to fund healthcare and housing adequately

You can tell yourself this, but it is not true. It is impossible for any govt to catch up in terms of time or money with a quick-growing population thru immigration and larger families. There is just not enough £ in terms of tax & NI going into the coffers but a lot going out.

As soon as one issue is getting sorted well, more people arrive. Two steps forward, one step back. The 3 bed semis in my area which were built to house a family of 4, now have 8-10 crammed in, using the 2 reception rooms as bedrooms as well.

DoinItFine · 01/12/2016 18:00

This government openly boasts about how it is underfunding our public services.

It's called "austerity".

Do you think they are secretly funding them sufficiently and the only problem is immigration?! Shock

Sobachka · 01/12/2016 18:02

Why is priority and all the assistance they can ask for being given to outsiders before our own vulnerable?

OxfordStreet, it's a valid point but we need to remain focussed on the bigger picture:

This country is overpopulated. Housing, public services, roads... all strained to breaking point. Uncontrolled immigration is adding to the problem.

Does anybody else doubt the stats?

FruitCider · 01/12/2016 18:05

thru

Sorry, I stopped listening as soon as I read this.

Healthcare costs have increased because we have more older people in the country than younger people. The majority of immigrants are fit and healthy and pay more in tax and national insurance than they cost, they are net contributors, unlike the British immigrants of a more mature stature flocking to Europe in their droves to retire.

FruitCider · 01/12/2016 18:05

This country is overpopulated

How? Most of the land mass is empty.

sportinguista · 01/12/2016 18:06

FruitCider I too worked the crap jobs when I was younger, I had some awful jobs factory work, cleaning, retail, chippies. At one time I did an office job during the day, awful monotonous data entry not anything nice then I did three to four shifts a week at a night club. I was literally finishing at 3 in the morning and going to my other job at 9 on one to 2 days, I was asleep most of the weekend daytime. I am a Brit, born here raised here and some of us have and do the shitty work as well, it's false to say that either ALL Brits are lazy or want only nice jobs, because it just isn't a complete picture. Now I'm self employed, and guess what? I'm just sitting down to work of an evening when possibly many are sitting down to watch telly and have a glass of wine. Lazy?

FruitCider · 01/12/2016 18:07

Good for you sportlinguista! It doesn't change the fact that the majority doing these lines of work are not British.

thisisafakename · 01/12/2016 18:09

You can tell yourself this, but it is not true. It is impossible for any govt to catch up in terms of time or money with a quick-growing population thru immigration and larger families

And I would say that you too can tell yourself this, but it's not true. There are numerous studies showing that migrants make a net positive contribution to the economy. I can assure you that you do not go higher up any list simply because you are an immigrant. Why on earth would you? The government spouts anti-immigrant rhetoric on a daily basis- why would they have a system where they give benefits and homes to immigrants but not the native population. People tell themselves what you are saying and use that to justify a general dislike of those from other countries.

sportinguista · 01/12/2016 18:09

Many of my DH colleagues in his 'shitty' warehouse job are Brits Fruit, some of them have been there over 25 years, perhaps he imagined them?

SouthallGirl · 01/12/2016 18:09

Austerity began to be felt around 2009. The problem of long waiting times to get a hospital appt, accommodation, cost of a flat to rent, overcrowded rented properties etc predates austerity. About 6 yrs ago the waiting time to get a first hospital appt was 2 months, now it is 3 months.

And if the consultant orders some investigations such as scan, x-ray, lung function tests, you wont get an appt earlier than 3 months from the time you saw the consultant. There is no joined-up medical treatment, because every appt for anything is separated by a standard12 weeks now in many hospitals.

That's not only my personal experience (and I work in a hospital) but all patients.