Can anyone clearly state an issue that they think would be improved by a vote to leave the EU... without quoting a tabloid newspaper? Whilst I see issues with the EU I don't see those improving with a UK exit. In particular why do people think that our borders will be any more secure? We are not part of the Schengan zone(apologies for the spelling), acceptance of refugees is a condition of UN membership not EU membership.
The questions you pose relate to no 4. on the list of attributes of sovereignty that I posted
- The right to control your borders.
Controlling your borders means that you can determine who and what enters your country, where it enters, for how long it is allowed to stay and what steps you will take to ensure your borders are not breached by over-staying visitors, or the presence of illegal immigrants and illegal goods. Control of borders extends to control of our territorial waters and fishing grounds. Control of our borders is not solely a security issue.
While we are in the EU, under the free movement of people, every EU citizen has the right to come to live in the UK.
Here are the official ONS figures for Nov 2015
The ONS data revealed that:
â—¾Net migration of European Union (EU) citizens showed an increase of 42,000 to 180,000, with the number from countries outside the bloc also up 36,000 to 201,000
â—¾In all, 294,000 people migrated to the UK for work, two thirds of whom had a definite job
â—¾The number of EU nationals working in the UK stood at two million from July to September, an increase of 324,000 compared to the same quarter last year
â—¾A total of 50,000 Romanians and Bulgarians came to the UK in the year to June, a rise of 19,000; restrictions on citizens from the two countries working in the UK were lifted in January last year
â—¾Romania is now in the top five countries where those coming to the UK last lived for the first time, accounting for 6% of all immigration
So 180,000 EU nationals came to live in the EU in the year ending Nov 2015. That number would fill a town the size of Crawley.
But the problem is that we have not built a new town the size of Crawley to accommodate these additional people.
In fact we have no idea from year to year how many EU citizens will actually come to live in the UK, so we are unable to ensure the services they will require in the UK are available. So we have an additional 180,000 people from EU countries all requiring housing, education, health care, welfare, social services, infrastructure jobs, etc.
That puts pressure on existing housing availability, causing prices and rents to rise. If the migrant is in a poorly paid job they may be entitled to housing benefit and other in-work benefits, the costs of which could outweigh any tax they pay. That migrant then becomes a net drain on the UK rather than a net benefit. Schools and hospitals also have to accommodate the needs of these additional UK residents.
The original intention of 'free movement' was that EU migrants who had a job could settle in the UK. That requirement has fallen by the wayside and migrants are permitted to come to the UK to seek work. The availability of cheap EU migrant labour depresses wages at a time when housing costs are rising.
And the consequence of having to accept uncontrolled migration into the Uk from EU countries means that, in an attempt to reduce the overall net immigration figures the Govt can only legislate to reduce non-EU migration. That means that skilled non-EU immigrants find it much harder to qualify to come to the UK to work, so we are in effect limiting the pool of skills on which the UK can draw on.
If we left the EU there would be no absolute right for an EU citizen to come to live and work in the UK. Instead we could introduce the type of immigration control that Australia and other countries use to ensure that we are able to invite those from across the world, who have the skills we need, to come to the UK. That would still allow EU nationals to come to live in the UK but would limit them to those with the skills we needed and would open competition to other non-EU migrants. this would reduce pressure on our housing, schools, education system, welfare etc and we would also be able to accurately predict and therefore plan for their arrival.
You asked about security and whether our borders would be any more secure. Only because with a properly controlled system of immigration we would have to have a much improved system of enforcing that immigration control and that would enhance our knowledge of how arrives/departs and overstays. I don't see security as a primary LEAVE issue. We have security services in or out of the EU.