So explain to me how you & I benefit from the rise in immigration

[contentiouscat]

Please explain to me who except the already rich employers (and translators) are benefitting - im not trying to be contentious I would just like to understand.

They are cheap labour therefore why should a british employer pay a decent wage i.e enough for you and I to pay our mortgage when they can get an immigrant willing to live 20 to a house in substandard conditions. So wages will go down.

They dont pay much tax because they are on minimum wage plus are sending a lot of their wages out of the country.

They are entitled to healthcare and as this report says are costing the police money.
news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=6167846

I also read yesterday that european immigrants are entitled to tax credits for their children who still live abroad (wtf), hospitals, police, school have to employ translators - of course this is all coming out of the piggy bank you and I have paid into for years and will continue to.

I just dont get it - SORRY!

NHS GPs in the inner-cities would have been none-existent for about the last fifty years without immigrant doctors.

Also we have an aging population which we are struggling to support. We need an influx of more workers to cope with that.

Even if immigration was on balance worse for those already in britain (i dispute this but lets assume that it is so for the sake of arguement)

1. is this a bad thing given that it results in a distribution of resources from the rich to the poor?

2. Imo trying to prevent immigration is incredibly costly and next to impossible. Nobody benefits from spending on border protection (we would be better of if those workers did something productive instead). If we let everybody work we would at least get the benefits of what they produced.

you do if you use the National Health Service!

kama - a lot of peole aren't open about it for 2 reasons -

1. Discussing "money" just isn't "done" (think some of them are worse than us Brits )

2. Most of the money sent back is done using "illegal" black market routes.....which you can usually get away with (well the families that are getting the money) if you're caught and you support the Government (but you won't find many Zanu PF supporters in the UK lol) but if your an opposition support they're not so "forgiving".

My whole family are immigrants - we arrived from SA when I was 3 and db was 1. Dad paid his own way as a medical student and then contributed many years as a higher rate tax payer - let along his contribution at work as a consultant.

I suppose he did also "send a remittance home" as for a number of years, he sent money to support his mother, until she died.

My Mum went to Uni once we were at school - I suppose you could then say she was aburden, as she got a grant and her fees were paid (those were the day! ) - but again, then contributed mnay years of taxation and her skills as a teacher.

As an immigrant child, albeit now a UK passport holder, I have also now contributed many years as a higher rate tax payer.

However, as a non UK born UK passport holder, I am not entitled auotmatically to bring in a non-UK passport holder husband - unlike UK born UK passport holders. Fortunately, I married a Scot

" I am not entitled auotmatically to bring in a non-UK passport holder husband - unlike UK born UK passport holders."

We're not either! We had to pay a very large application fee and go through a horrible interview process (as well as having a "sponsor" for my DH in the UK) before he was allowed to come ot the UK with me. Even then he wasn't allowed to claim benefits and had to pay his own way.

I'm a European immigrant - should I just piss off 'home' then?????

yeah - b*gger off Waynetta

Ahhh yes what I like is when people complain about the 'forrin' Doctors and consultants who have 'really hard to understand accents'

They don't realise that if all the 'forrin' people left the NHS then there wouldn't BE consultants and Doctors

These days, companies do not rely on 'cheap labour' from immigrants - if they want cheap labour they will - and DO - re-locate to China for manufacturing, or outsource anything which can be sold or communicated digitally - e.g call centres. THIS is the modern day cause of job losses in this country - not immigration. But peope like to trot out the old chestnuts.

Meanwhile, try getting any essential building work done here, and believe me, you will be pleased we have immigrants! And to my knowledge builders were not especially badly paid!

hehe MP - surely they're not as hard to understand as one of the (very good it must be said) Dr.s in our surgery - she's from the West Coast of Scotland........and DH and I can hardly understand a word she says

So, all immigrants are equal, but some are more equal than others.....[hmmmm]

??? was that directed at me???

No QoQ - sorry, just reading the thread - not directed at you at all!

phew - thought you'd got the wrong end of the stick with my 13.07 post

no - panic not!!!!

programme on the other night about immigrants and the figure of 10 billion was satated as being sent abroad.

Agree with many points raised here esp on NHS. Also: one of the reasons we can still get such cheap food in the UK - although may not be for much longer - is that the supermarket food market is subsidised by very poorly paid immigrant workers. Sooo if you like your cheap chicken you are directly benefitting from immigrant labour.

Its really interesting to read all your varying responses - all valid imo.

But I do tell you what! I would never ever want to be anyone one of theirs shoes or their position tbh. TO have leave your home country, go through excruitiantly painful and stringent vetting process, only then to be deemed and treated with some hostility upon your arrival - eh?

No matter what colour our skin, race or religion, we are all human. I think what people balk at are 'numbers'. Because if you were to meet an immigrant on an individual basis, became their friend then you would be supportive, loving and understanding. But its 'numbers' that scare us. and as someone has pointed out below, the media provoke us without actually providing true stats, only one side of the coin. And yes, how often do we hear about British folk emigrating? I dont hear it tbh. I do have friends and know of people that have emigrated, but not in droves.

thoughts over. xx

"go through excruitiantly painful and stringent vetting process,"

I think I was more traumatised by the interview for DH's visa than he was...I was about 4 months pg at the time and extremely hormonal - ended up in floods of tears infront of the interviewer and he had to go and find me a box of tissues .

QoQ - sorry to hear that.

QoQ - they must have changed it then. I remember getting on my high horse about the changes that were being proposed in the early 80s. Not that I was planning on getting married at the time - but it was the principle of it!

Yes - definitely changed this was back in early 2000 and I think it had been in place for a while before then.

QoQ - I was very embarassed about it later but it was horrible at the time. It was comments from the interviewer such as "and what work do you think you'll be able to get then QOQ's DH?" "how do you think you're going to be able to support your wife and a baby" and "so what are you going to do when the baby is born - you'll have to get a job" (my response to that was something along the lines of "I'll go and stack shelves in the supermarket if I have to"......I didn't actually have to get a job until end of 2005).

It cost us the equivalent of about 3 months wages to apply for his visa - and then there were the hours queuing up to a) get the application form b) submit the application for c) collect the passport once he had finally been given it. Horrible experience and I'm glad we won't have to go through it again.