LET'S TALK ABOUT IMMIGRANTS

I don’t know about you, but I’m fed up with so much media and politicians’ time being spent on immigrants.

Are immigrants causing this dreadful rise in global temperatures and the consequent wildfires costing immeasurable suffering and billions of pounds?  Nope.

Have immigrants been causing the Strait of Hormuz to be closed to most shipping over the past few months?  No, that was Trump and Netanyahu’s fault.

Were immigrants responsible for the 50-100% rise in the price of chocolate?  Nope.  That was because of the lowering cocoa yields due to the extreme weather, and crop disease in West Africa.

Did immigrants make Neighbours come to an end, causing great distress to me?  No.  That was TV people not making enough money, I presume.

Was it immigrants who caused the war between Russia and Ukraine?  No.  That was the megalomaniac Putin who wants to recreate the USSR.

Are immigrants the cause of higher living costs in the US, an ever-increasing national debt, decline in healthcare access and division and confusion?  Nope.  That’s Donald Trump’s influence.

Did immigrants cause the large outbreak of measles in the US? Nope.  Not that either.  Again, the Trump regime with RFK Jr in charge of health.

Was the 30-states-wide super-outbreak of ‘exploding diarrhoea’ in America caused by immigrants?  Nah.  Just Trump’s idea not to check for parasites.

Many people blame the lack of housing in the UK on immigrants.  However, the Oxford Migration Observatory and the London School of Economics agree that the shortage would exist even without net migration.  For decades we haven’t been building enough homes to match demand.  Planning laws and land scarcity limit how and where new properties can be built (although you wouldn’t believe it near me!).  The number of homes needed has risen vastly due to the number of people choosing to live alone, or having to after divorce, and generally fewer people living together.  Of course, the public housing stock was severely depleted after the “Right to Buy” scheme, which saw hundreds of thousands of council homes sold off with few replacements being built.

Well, immigrants must be draining our public purse and causing a reduction in public services, insist a group of Reform voters.  Not so.  Studies consistently show that, on average, recent immigrants (particularly working-age individuals) contribute more in taxes than they receive in state benefits or public service usage, helping fund public infrastructure and pensions for an aging population.

But immigrants must be the cause of the decline in our NHS, surely.  No.  A significant proportion of doctors, nurses, and social care workers in England were born abroad or trained overseas.

Actually, immigrants have been useful in doing jobs we Brits don’t want to or can’t do.  And out of their salaries they pay taxes, and they buy things in shops and online, in pubs and cafes, helping to keep our commercial entities alive.

Don’t forget, immigrants are consumers too.

So what is the problem with immigrants?

“Do they cause riots?” asks a small lady at the front, quietly.  Not really.  We have had riots, looting, arson and violence, even against our law-and-order workers, firefighters and NHS staff because of the far-right, notably Nigel Farage and the man who calls himself Tommy Robinson.  They stir up hatred against anyone who may seem foreign, even if they’re not; against genuine asylum seekers whom they insist are all here to take our homes, jobs and benefits.  They hold marches against them and whip up attitudes into a frenzy online against this population of “others”, and that’s what causes the trouble.

Ironically, Tommy Robinson is an immigrant most of the time because he prefers to live abroad.  Farage was married to a foreigner, and his surname is obviously of foreign origin.

It’s a funny old world, isn’t it?  It would be so much more pleasant if we just got on.