UK Immigration

The UK requires further and increased immigration in order to function. Our industries, services, pensions and economy need more young workers imported from abroad. We opened our borders fully to new EU countries such as Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. Along with Ireland and Sweden who also didn't restrict immigration from these new countries, we have benefitted most economically₇, along with the new countries themselves. Old, stable nations will benefit from attracting skilled workers from such countries, whilst the new countries experience freer trade and commerce, which boosts their own long-term stability. In general, EU enlargement has been a massive economic success, which partially explains why the Euro itself has become the world's second strongest currency.

1. Introduction: Trash Culture and Xenophobia
2. The Future of UK Pension Schemes Require Immigrant Workers
3. Some Industries Rely on Immigrant Workforces, More Will in the Future
4. Conclusion

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Introduction: Trash Culture and Xenophobia

The UK has gotten a reputation for not only being shy with its embrace of the rest of Europe, but for actively disliking 'foreign' things. This is expressed foremost through popular opinion associated with trash culture (the mass opinion of the uneducated), but also through political parties such as the BNP and NF. Despite this, the British government is much wiser and for the benefit of the country as a whole, has supported immigration, notably from within new European countries that have not been received well by some of the other members of 'old' Europe.

“All European countries accept and tolerate other cultures and lifestyles. The UK is the notable exception in Europe. Despite being a very mixed country, London is the most diverse city on Earth, the central trash culture is very intolerant of foreign things. The saving grace is that the masses are so stupid they frequently accept things without knowing they're foreign. "Different" styles of dress, different customs, religions, looks and people are misunderstood, cruelly stereotyped and largely rejected. [...] Racism is strife, much more so than the government would like to admit. [...] Countries such as Denmark, Finland and Sweden all accept a higher rate of asylum seekers than the UK [Vexen on Asylum Seeker Acceptance Rates, 2004] and yet these countries do not have the problems that many in the UK complain about.”

"Britain's Trash Culture and Xenophobia" by Vexen Crabtree (2004)

“Opinion polls consistently show that Britons are concerned about immigration, which they think is running out of control. [...] Television images of Afghans pouring into the Channel Tunnel particularly offended the island mentality. For the last three years, fewer would-be refugees have made it to Britain, thanks to better border security [...]. The number of asylum-seekers is now the lowest it has been for more than a decade. Oddly, though, public disquiet is as strong as ever”

The Economist (2006)₁

This delusional malaise extends as far as the short-sighted politics of some of the single-issue-parties in the UK that campaign for isolationism and a stop on all immigration. Such unreasonable and impractical policies are a fundamental part (indeed, the only real policy) of the British National Party and the National Front. Many consider these parties to represent merely the face of racism and intolerance.

“Such parties are dangerously shallow and single-minded. They appeal to nationalism of the most hateful kind. Diatribes against "foreigners" in general result in promises of laws against immigration (including a complete ban on all immigration), laws to expel immigrants (illegal, and legal) who live here, and laws against benefits for immigrants. The UK requires an immigrant workforce; our population would otherwise decline and our pensions system would break down as a decreasing work-age population has to pay for the services and pensions of an increasingly old population. Only immigration stops this happening. Simple economics seems to escape the attention of extremist nationalist parties. But these parties are not aimed at the intelligent members of the population, they are squarely aimed at underlying bigotry and emotional xenophobia. Of the 15 headings on their "What We Stand For" page on the BNP website, 6 directly refer to putting "British People First" and "time to say enough" to immigration. They want to end immigration [...] and yet simultaneously state that they will spend more on pensions for old people.”

"Single Issue Parties: Immigration, The National Front and the BNP" by Vexen Crabtree (2006)

Single issue parties are not complex or developed enough to be able to govern a country, it would be an economic disaster! Two of these factors are discussed below: The pensions crises and the demographic shift; both caused by an ageing population, and both remedied by increasing the amounts of young immigrants.

The Future of UK Pension Schemes Require Immigrant Workers

Due to the ageing populations of many Western countries₂, the immigration of young adult workers will become essential if pensions schemes are going to last in to the future. My text on "The Earth's Population: The Ageing West" (2006) discusses this issue:

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In many Western countries and countries such as Japan, a post-industrial slow in the population growth has occurred. Populations are ageing. This means that over coming decades, the numbers of old people will continue to rise whilst the numbers of the young continue to decline. It is the first time in Human history that the age distribution of nations has threatened to become long-term top-heavy. What this means is a change in the entire way that society is structured. The young will have an excess of elders, rather than the old having an excess of youth. [...] Many companies and governments are feeling the increasing pressure of having larger numbers of pensioners. More and more people are drawing pensions, and fewer and fewer will be paying into pension schemes. Economists have long predicted that in modern countries, all pension schemes will collapse. It is not possible for one worker to pay for the pensions of three, or hardly even two, retired elders. Governments such as Britain's have implemented a gradual increase of the age of retirement to try and curb the collapse of pension schemes and to try to dam the exodus of workers from employment to retirement.”

"The Earth's Population: The Ageing West" by Vexen Crabtree (2006)

“Firms big and small are threatened by a fundamental demographic shift that most have yet to adjust to. Britain's pensioners are proving a hardier bunch than expected. On August 1st the actuaries' trade body adopted a new set of mortality tables drawing on data collected between 1999 and 2002. It forecasts yet another increase in life expectancy. In 1999 actuaries assumed that a British man retiring at 60 would on average live to the ripe old age of 84. They then raised their estimate in 2002 to 87. Now they figure he will live about six months longer. What is good news for ageing folk is bad news for those who support them. Each increase in life expectancy of one year adds about £12 billion to the aggregate pension liabilities of FTSE 100 companies, says Peter Thompkins of Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, an accounting firm. [...]

Firms as a group are underestimating life expectancy. [...] Updating that estimate could well add more than £25 billion to the FTSE 100 deficit [...]. So it is not surprising that many companies are trying to reduce the risks of providing pensions by closing their final-salary schemes to new members (which three-quarters of FTSE 100 firms have already done) and, increasingly, to existing members.”

The Economist (2006)₃

Some Industries Rely on Immigrant Workforces, More Will in the Future

The UK depends, now, on immigrants to supply a workforce in multiple industries. For example "over the past five years, nearly half the new doctors and nurses employed by Britain's National Health Service qualified abroad"₄. This trend will continue: without increasing amounts of immigrants, the UK's industry (and then economy) would collapse. For now, new entrants into the European Union such as Poland offer healthy workforces to 'old' Europe. Europe's open borders allow the post-explosion countries to easily import workers. But, as the whole of Europe gradually enters the post-population-explosion era, more and more workers will have to come from Asia, South America and Africa. As yet, the increases are quite small and most immigrants come from within Europe, but in the future, Europe as a whole will be a hungry gobbler of young adults seeking work, from all over the developing world.

The UK is "the only big European country so far to welcome workers from the EU's eight new members"₅, and so far we have benefited greatly from them. The Highlands that surround Inverness in Scotland have witnessed renewed hope for local economies as a result of the badly needed influx of workers, as decade after decade large numbers of working-age young Scots have left the highlands, leaving a demographic hole in the population.

“[The Poles] have flocked to the Highlands since May 2004 to do the low-paid jobs Scots have turned their noses up at for years, in tourism, construction and food processing. At Strathaird Salmon alone, more than one-third of the 400-strong workforce is Polish. [...] In a sparsely populated region that has been haemorrhaging young Scots since the 19th century, the eastern Europeans are welcome.”

The Economist (2006)₅

Conclusion

The UK is ageing, and we need more working-age people to fill the emptying hole in our demographic make-up. Otherwise, multiple industries and all pensions are at severe risk. Already, some industries and local economies depend on immigrants, especially as cheap labour to do work that not many others want to do but also we have serious shortages in some skilled trades, for example, nearly half the new doctors and nurses employed in the National Health Service have qualified abroad. We already have shortages of medical staff. Imagine the world without half the staff of the NHS, cheap labourers working in industries that our ageing population avoids, no pensions for increasing numbers of the elderly, and you imagine a UK without immigration. The Government reports that immigrants in total pay more in taxes than they take as benefits₆. Countries in the EU - Britain, Sweden and Eire, that have opened their borders fully to EU's new members such as Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, have benefited from it more than others. Despite this, some extremist, simpleton and short-sighted parties (such as the BNP and NF) campaign for a complete stop to immigration, and even promise to send home nationalized foreigners. With a population that is ageing, they will soon find that they have rather a lot of pensioners and not many workers.