Rodney Sanches
UK Migration 2010
Observations on the Public Discussion
The UK has net migration that under half of one percent to its current population per year and has never gone over this number.
The UK has an open labour market to all other EU nations and since the pound is more valuable than the euro, it can be advantageous to work for pounds rather than euros.
The confusion and cross talking of these issues is creates a strange situation where citizens of the UK can imagine that their state is extremely generous with migrants. It is not, it is fair and follows its policies, but it is not a give away.
The fear of new people and the imagined fragility of British culture is amazing to witness, from the very heart of a people who transformed the entire world with their movement, trade and empire; trembling in the face of a small non native population.
On a episode called “Is Britain Full” in the BBC news programme Panorama states, “yes it is”. The only think I could determine Britain being full of was ignorance. The show stated that UK population will shortly reach 70 million due to immigration. This is a strange claim because all of the political parties have agreed to limit migration, birth rates are falling and has listed the UK as 176th in the world for a population birth rate of .28. It is telling the statistician on this show says her numbers are accurate within 2.5%. This margin of error is easily double the highest intake of approximately 400,000 for a country of 60,000,000. At the recent political debate, a party leader says he would limit immigration to be at the 1997 level of 77,000. Why nobody is mentioning the EU labour market is bewildering, as is the rancour surrounding a small numbers of migrants.
New Data!
During the leadership debate on the 29th of April, it was said clearly, by Nick, that EU citizens can work in the UK and that they are being confused with immigration. Finally the distinction has been made and now everything is fine.