Immigration: The Failed Social Experiment?
In the end, Brexit was mainly about immigration. The UK Independence Party (UKIP) never hid that from us, but the other politicians who led the Brexit campaign tried to sell it with other reasons. Now the debate is all about “taking control of our borders” and stopping free movement of people, even at the expense of the UK’s access to the free market, but it is clear that this is about immigration.
The strange thing about immigration is that it’s one of those topics on which people mainly follow their hearts, not their minds. All the indicators show that immigration is good for the economy and the country. Immigrants challenge the status quo and lead to better innovation — for the shining example of this, look to Silicon Valley, but also to London.
The Independent ran a piece on the Huguenots, pointing out that “the word ‘refugee’ entered the English language when the Huguenots landed…50,000 French Protestants came to England after Louis XIV revoked the 1598 Edict of Nantes at Fontainebleau in October 1685. Another 10,000 fled to Ireland, part of an exodus of perhaps 200,000 people.”
The Huguenots brought a raft of skills to London that kicked off industries from hat making and weaving to metalworking. They also introduced the use of manure in farming, allowing the farms around London to start producing excess crops to…
