Ohhhhh- how frustrating! The debate about immigration hots up as UKIP threatens big gains at forthcoming elections Are you in favour of immigration or against? Should we close our frontiers completely? Is it racist to say we have too many immigrants moving in?
We never really seem to get to the hub of the issue which seems to me that ...
The neo-liberal capitalist system which is increasingly dominating the world sees free markets as the solution to all problems and a free market means free movements of people
Free movements of people means that those living in poor countries will see what life is like in the 'developed' countries (or at least the version they see on their tv screens) and will want to leave home in search of a better life
Of course employers in the immigrants' new country will be pretty chuffed to employ them because they will work for lower wages and will often tolerate poor working and housing conditions
This new pool of cheap labour has the effect of lowering the standard of living of the indigenous workers
Worker is set against worker and everyone concentrates on the 'benefit fraudsters' and 'benefit tourists' thus taking attention away from the real cause of the problem. Divide and rule.
Then we come to skilled and professional workers who according to B Johnson and D Cameron are very welcome. But, no mention is made of the fact that by emigrating these workers are denying their homeland their skills and education.
The world is changing rapidly. People need time to adapt to change. People's sense of security is severely threatened when huge numbers of people from a different culture move into the neighbourhood. That doesn't make them racist. And the people who have moved in search of a better life feel pretty insecure too when they find their new homeland isn't always exactly welcoming.
That side of the story rarely gets an airing.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Good to have your feedback. Thanks for commenting.