Immigration net benefit

The problem with EU immigration in my opinion has nothing to do with the couple of hundred million they supposedly put into the UK economy, its the social side of things, the straining of a already overworked NHS, social housing, schools and our benefits system, it really is as simple as that.

Not much common sense required to work that one out

I believe what I see, not what I read in a news article, I have seen with my own eyes that my grand daughter cannot get a place at her local school because of the Eastern European influx, I have seen 12 Polish guys living in a three bedroomed council house (that's why they can undercut UK workers, no major bills to pay) and I saw only a couple of days ago I saw loads of Eastern Europeans signing on at the Jobcentre when I took the missus there.

Well said Timmers.

This badly slanted report has been widely ridiculed as "spectacularly wrong" and "laughable"

The same "migration expert" predicted Eastern European immigration of between 5,000 and 13,000 per year,
It ended up averaging 200,000 per year, fifteen times his maximum prediction.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...man-said-just-13-000-come-Eastern-Europe.html

http://biasedbbc.org/blog/2014/01/05/the-bbc-still-selling-us-a-lie-on-immigration/

The Daily Mail article presents valid criticism of a biased academic report.

51 pages at this time in the morning

No I have not read the report, I read the UCL article that you posted, I read the New Scientist article, and I Googled.

I assume that you posted this because you yourself were surprised by the reports findings!

In the Daily Mail article...

Quite a big article actually.

Never heard of Migration watch till you pointed them out.

The Daily Mail article presents quite a decent and credible critique of the report and the Professor whose predictions have been so badly wrong in the past.

As far as trusting people, never trust anybody, look at the real world facts and make up your own mind. This report seems badly skewed.

Exactly, Tim. I trust what I see and experience but don't necessarily trust what I read in print - and especially not when it is diametrically-opposed to what I know.

Two groups favour liberal immigration policies: hirers of cheap labour and the tie-wearing supporters of Blair's New Labour. A policy that I'm fairly confident that Miliband intends to re-introduce should, heaven forfend, he be charged with forming the next government. The socialists are rightly proud of Britain's welfare state, so proud in fact that they want to share it with as many others as they can! And with most of continental Europe also left-leaning, they have natural friends and allies.

According to the Office of National Statistics, the population of the UK was 64.1 million in 2013 and is increasing by about half a million a year - it was 63.1 million in 2011, the latest census - much of which is as a result of nett migration which accounts for a total of 7.8 million. This rate of increase appears to have been a feature of the country's statistics ever since 2004 and I do wonder how long before the country's welfare systems, housing and education cease to cope. Most of the influx is in London and the south-east of England but the north-west is equally affected. The inability of parents to have their children educated in local schools is a factor of everyday life in these areas as is the increasing difficulty in getting registered with a GP or a NHS dentist. And even if one is registered, getting an appointment in anything like a timely fashion is a major challenge.

According to the Daily Telegraph, NHS hospital trusts are actively recruiting nurses in Spain and Portugal without adequate checks on their language ability. A loophole in EU legislation prevents the Nursing and Midwifery Council regulator from checking the English-speaking ability of European nurses, as it is deemed to restrict their "freedom of movement". These nurses are being offered double their present salaries for one-third less work and recruiters are encouraging the use of Google Translate to help them complete their applications. The NHS is short-staffed but what is the point of employing people who can not speak, read, write or understand the English language to an acceptable standard? How will these nurses be able to interact with their patients or understand the care-plans prescribed by doctors? This is a car crash waiting to happen. For jobs that require language ability - and nursing is definitely one - employers should be able to bypass EU legislation and recruit from Australia, New Zealand, India and the Philippines as they were able to do prior to 2004.

Just because a (socialist) academic at Oxford says that EU immigration is good doesn't necessarily make it so. It's just his opinion.

I grew-up at a time when Britain imported labour from Jamaica and elsewhere in the West Indies to help make up the shortage of blue collar workers after World War 2. But for them, London's Underground and buses would not have run, its streets wouldn't have been cleaned and its letters undelivered. They were very necessary and worked hard. The odd race riot aside, they were mostly respected and integrated fairly well into society. They did jobs that many British working class deemed to be beneath them, preferring to be a sponger, claim dole and/or a life of petty crime to fund their lifestyle.

Sixty years on, the situation is pretty similar: lazy Britons happily giving their employment prospects away because the benefits available now are far greater in real terms than they were in the 1950s. So long as these migrants and Public Enemy Number One - being the rich - pay taxes, the lazy left can enjoy their subsidised lifestyle and get appearance fees to take part in television programmes like "Benefits Street". Which only they watch!

I do think Britain has benefited from "immigration" but not to the extent being claimed.

I do not see one single positive in EU immigration, not a single one, all negatives for me but that's just my view.

And if the shoe was on the other foot, they wouldn't want us in their country too under the same circumstances.