Over the past couple of years immigration and the governments attitude towards it has been a regularly discussed topic within politics and the population. Recently arguments in regards to this topic were a deciding factor in the UK choosing to leave the EU in the recent referendum. The main argument was that Britain would never be able to fully control its borders until it leaves the European Union something that many people see as a negative of the EU and the free movement the comes with membership.
So why this sudden fixation on immigration?
In the UK among certain groups of the population there is this perception the immigrants only come to the UK to take advantage of the benefits the UK provides. In fact in a survey conducted by NatCen Social research in 2014 it was revealed that a quarter of the British population think this. Furthermore another adopted attitude is that immigrates steal jobs that could be occupied by “British” people. These increasingly prominent attitudes have coincided with the rise of the UKIP who have fed off these attitudes to move up the political ladder and become somewhat relevant within parliament.
However at these attitudes fair? Out of the 64 million people in the UK only 2 million are workers from other EU countries, there wouldn’t be many more on top of that to account for countries outside the EU due to the fact that they do not have the same free movement privileges that citizens of EU countries have. In regards to immigrants claiming benefits 93% of the 5.3 million people claiming aid, such as jobseekers’ allowance and disability benefits, have British nationality. Furthermore despite the common misconception that the main nationality to migrate to the UK is Polish, in fact the top two countries that migrants come from are China and Indian. The UK isn’t even the largest port of call for migrants in the EU as they are eclipsed by Germany.
Therefore is immigration even a problem? You could argue that should Britain’s population keep growing at it current rate there is a risk of overcrowding however it is a fair assumption that a scenario like this is a long way off.
Underlying all these arguments there is also a sense that Britain will loose its cultural identity due to an influx of people from different cultures. But ultimately does Britain really have a cultural identity anymore. Britain has very much become a nation that has embraced ideas from different nations through out its history from cuisine, to fashion, to sport.
The immigration issue is so much more than just the attitudes I have discussed, with factors such as religion, racial tension and prejudice coming into play as well. However hopefully this will have dispelled some common misconceptions about migrants and the benefits they bring with them.