15.1.14

Thoughts on // Immigration

With the recent opening of British borders to Romanian and Bulgarian workers, there has been much media attention to the so called 'issues' of immigration and a desperate fear of a sudden influx of job-snatching Eastern Europeans flooding our borders. In reality this is of course a far fetched outcome and here the Daily Telegraph even admit to the lack of immigrants that have arrived at UK borders since the new regulations have been put in place. The whole nation seems to be in denial of the blindingly obvious positive impact immigration has already had on our country. Of course it is always easier to have someone else to blame for your own misery, but the fact of the matter is immigrants from Eastern Europe are not to blame for Britain's economic and unemployment issues.

People are quick to point the finger and accuse these migrants of taking "our" jobs. Yet sometimes workers come and set up their own businesses creating more jobs, and sometimes they do the jobs we don't want to do, or ones that allow our economy to run more efficiently. Ultimately in a nation of declining population, immigrants strengthen the UK workforce. It's not one for one, sometimes one equals three new jobs plus tax revenue. And sometimes it doesn't, but Britain is a multi-cultural nation whose population need to wake up and be proud of this fact. Economics aside, we should be grateful that we have generations growing up in a place where acceptance is a skill we can all learn, as well as being able to learn from each other. Different should not be a word we are afraid of.
Me & Mum
My own life has given me strong feelings about immigration; my mum originally comes from Munich in Germany, and having this as part of me is something I am extremely proud of. When I hear people condemning these "goddamn immigrants taking our jobs and benefits" I feel angry at this ignorance our society breeds. My mum has not come over to England to just "scrounge off the state", and has instead worked, created a businesses, a family and a loving environment in which me and my brother could grow up in. As an immigrant and a part of multi-cultural Britain, she has in my opinion given back just as much as any other citizen, and in some cases perhaps even more.

This beautiful video of spoken word by Hollie McNish really sums up the positive reality of immigration.

4 comments:

  1. I think many immigrants work harder and take jobs some Brits think beneath them (and those Brits are the ones on benefits, not immigrants). I do think it is overcrowded here though. After travelling through Europe by car every year for the last ten years, I notice how much space and land there is and how uncrowded it is. It's a shame languages aren't taught in pre-school and maybe if we Brits were bi/trilingual, more of us would also migrate to non-English language countries and it would even out.

    Louisa @ My Family & Abruzzo

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    1. Yes definitely. I guess it could be said that the UK is 'overcrowded' but I would be more inclined to agree with the idea that it is the fault of Britain's lack of language learning capacity and mobility within Europe. Annie-Lou XO

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  2. I'm not sure why immigration is approached by many in such a negative light! In my opinion, immigration means growth, diversity.. This was extremely informative & digestible ;D Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to your future posts!!

    <3 Carsla
    Founder & CEO of Connect-the-Cloths
    www.connect-the-cloths.com
    A stylist, foodie, & writer's blog in development.

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    1. Definitely! Thank you very much for your kind response :) XO

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