Overwhelming open-door onslaught...

Seems to me that we can’t escape the obvious; it’s been obvious for a number of years but it is only now that it appears we are able to talk about it. I recall clearly the roasting William Hague and others got for having the nerve to mention the problem that dare not speak its name…immigration.

I touched on this earlier in the month regarding the fact that 83% of the new housing that England “needs” would be for the increase in population due to immigration.

Now the BBC tells us that “About 600,000 people have come to work in the UK from eight nations which joined the European Union in 2004, says Home Office minister Tony McNulty.”
The figures show those 427,000 migrant workers who successfully registered to work brought with them 36,000 dependents - spouses and children. Some 27,000 child benefit applications were approved

The government predicted there would be 15,000 people a year from the new EU member countries moving to the UK for work.

The question that strikes me is how can these people just seem to turn up and get benefits? 36,000 dependants….27, 000 child benefit applications approved, I presume that the other 9 thousand are mothers – all with 3 children each? Am I wrong to assume that? Now these immigrants will have zero or very little NI payments…I paid my NI every month when I was working abroad, I even made a mistake and paid DOUBLE NI for several years but when I returned to the UK in 1996 I was told that I couldn’t receive ANY benefit AT ALL for at least 6 months and even then it would depend on what savings I had. So turn up as a foreigner and collect straight away…pay your dues for years on end (without using any service because you live abroad) and you get zilch???

Now the government claims it’s good for the nation, they all pay their way etc…seems not: here are all the calculations… and their apparent results. However:

Conclusion

51. The Government has repeatedly claimed, in support of their policy of encouraging large-scale immigration, that migrants make a positive fiscal contribution of £2.5 billion a year. This report shows that central claim to be false.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said the case for restrictions for Romanians and Bulgarians was now "unanswerable".

Former Labour minister Frank Field the number of migrants was unmanageable and made it increasingly difficult for local people to get jobs.

MIGRATION SINCE 2004
Accession countries: 427,000
(About 600,000 including self-employed)
Dependants: 36,000
Non-EU settlement: 318,330
Granted asylum: 123,000
Non-EU work permits: 261,235, plus 87,000 dependants
Total: 1,425,565
Source: Home Office

AGE OF REGISTERED WORKERS: 92% between the ages of 18 and 44.
(Source: Accession monitoring report May 2004 - June 2006)

Alarming, no? …more from the BBC HERE, and these figures does not even include people from the existing EU countries (Ireland, France, Germany etc…) who may have moved to live in the UK over those two years. And…there’s more, by definition it does not include illegal immigrants.

Now, having said all that this does not mean that the UK's population will have increased by this amount since May 2004 as there have also been people leaving the UK…how many…err…well there’s 119,000 British people moved abroad in 2004, according to the latest available figures…and …err…there are no figures given for the numbers of people given the right to work in the UK who have since left…but I think we all know that it’s not enough! All the figures have been reported in all the media, this isn't just a 'right-wing' press scare story. Here's the reports from The Guardian and The Independent.

The government must stand its ground. EU enlargement is good for the EU and good for Britain - both in economic and political terms. Intra-EU migration is vital for the efficient use of EU labour. It is also a fundamental right of EU membership.

This last from the Financial Times…but I just do not understand how they can keep claiming that it’s good. Looking at the graph below all of those jobs will be on or near minimum wage; if all those thousands of employers know that the minimum wage is MUCH more than those workers would get in their native countries they know the workers will not leave or worry about earning much more, thereby maintaining wages at a false low and intentionally or not discouraging ‘home grown’ workers who know damn well they cannot afford to live on the minimum wage.

For all the details read the Home Office report published 22 August 2006 [link] (PDF)