An open letter to immigrants
Dear Immigrants,
On 24th of June, in the historical divorce, majority of the British people voted you out. You can call it tragic, comic or even imbecile but 51.9% or 17.4 million votes cannot simply be termed as a deceptive verdict. This referendum has not only reflected the vote of the masses but also a clear image of the mindset of British society. A society, that believes in nationalism, prejudice and greatness. UK’s relationship with Europe has never been simple, nor static. It took the country years to join the European Community and when it was last put to the vote in 1975 many backed it grudgingly or for narrow economic reasons.
Many of those have since changed their minds, with their earlier ambivalence turning into outright hostility. There have been decades of scepticism towards the EU among politicians and in large parts of the UK media. What appears clear from the campaign is that the vote to “Leave” was as much a statement about the country’s national identity, and not about its economic and political future.
Only a few generations after your forefathers came into the UK to work as laborers and taxi drivers, they have given birth to a new generation of kids born into extreme wealth. Flashy cars, snazzy households and an extravagant lifestyles is not even half what defines 80% of the wealthiest UK citizens – the immigrants. British taxpayers are effectively paying wealthy foreigners to come and live in the UK because of the generosity of the immigration system. According to the head of the government’s independent migration advisory committee: “the golden visa system allows wealthy investors predominantly to acquire British citizenship if they invest in British assets which is absolutely not fit for purpose and has no gain for the British people”.
The proportion of British who admit to being racially prejudiced has risen dramatically, raising concerns that growing hostility to immigrants and widespread Islamophobia are setting community relations back 20 years.
New data from NatCen’s authoritative British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey shows that after years of increasing tolerance, the percentage of people who describe themselves as prejudiced against those of other races has risen at a dramatic rate since 2001. The findings come as political leaders struggle to deal with the rise of the UK Independence party, which campaigned on an anti-immigrant, anti-EU platform and has sent shockwaves through the political establishment and put pressure on mainstream parties to toughen their stances on immigration.
If we want to have a sensible debate about immigration, we must not be afraid of the truth. Disillusionment after graduation, lack of opportunities and rampant corruption ends up making even the most patriotic among us long for the stability offered by developed countries. The problem isn’t immigrants, who deserve nothing but respect and admiration for having the get-up-and-go to travel overseas to improve their own and their families, who bring fresh ideas and new ways of thinking and working on the UK shores, it’s the sheer scale of it. What has been happening in the UK since the late 1990s is unprecedented, with net immigration up by more than 2.6 million people flooding into the UK. It is impossible to deny there are also huge costs in terms of pressure on housing, schools, other public services and competition for low skilled jobs.
This is a simple matter of mathematics. If you have more people, you need more homes, more schools, more hospitals and more buses and trains, and they all cost money. Lots of money. Immigration is a huge factor in the growing demand for housing. A person born abroad headed more than 60 per cent of the new households created in the UK in the past 20 years. Over the last five years that figure rose to 90 per cent.
The pressure on hospitals and schools is also crystal clear, with more than one in four babies born in England and Wales in 2014 having a migrant mother. Primary schools now have to cope with large numbers of children arriving on their first day knowing barely a word of English. While those children, thanks to their aspirational parents, often go on to outperform their British classmates, it still means British children are losing out on teaching time while vital resources go to help the non-English speakers.
Anyway, even those tax benefits and costs don’t fall equally on everyone. The benefits accrue to employers, who have a new influx of eager, hard-working job applicants. But the costs fall on the unemployed and the low skilled workers who now face even more competition for the same jobs. That has seen their wages fail to keep up with inflation for the simple fact that employers haven’t needed to raise pay rates when they have no shortage of labor.
Yet, by stating these bald evidences one simply cannot turn a blind eye on the fact that Brits are done with immigrants. It’s Briton that out of EU now and next it is you out of Briton. The mindset is very clear it is only a matter of time.
Regards,
A “leave” voter