Saturday, June 26, 2010

Tory/Lib Dem coalition plan interim cap on non-EU migrant workers coming to UK, they must also address the issue of illegal immigrants














Dear All

One of the issues that came up in the 2010 election was immigration.

You could say in part that the ‘Mrs. Duffy effect’ played a part in the downfall of Gordon Brown and the Labour Government.

The Tories have taken onboard that the continual surge in population has generated many problems.

It was always argued by the Labour Party that immigration was purely an economic issue to them but this subsequently turned out to be a lie.

The Labour Party was allowing unfettered immigration as part of their multi cultural experiment.

This angered a lot of people who couldn’t get jobs particularly the working class, it also allowed the BNP to gain ground in British Politics.

Trevor Phillips, head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has even said that Labour's multiculturalism project has failed.

In some parts of Britain, ghettos have formed in places like Bradford and Govanhill in Glasgow creating an entrenched segregation to which some politicians play off. This has led to the rise of the 'race' politician who thinks they can deliver a certain section of the voting population to a political party.

Now the Tories are to introduce a temporary limit on the number of migrant workers from outside the EU being allowed into the UK.

They have a further idea of introducing a planned permanent cap.

Home Secretary Theresa May is to bring forward measures that will limit the number of workers to 24,100, a 5% drop between now and April 2011.

The Conservatives' election pledge to curb immigration survived the coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats however it isn’t all a happy boat as some Tory ministers agree with certain business leaders that a rigid cap could harm the economy.

Julia Onslow-Cole, of PricewaterhouseCoopers says that every overseas national brought by firms into the UK cost them three times as much as hiring a resident worker.

Surely, it makes sense to train up people who are already here?

The Bangladesh Caterers' Association who represents 12,000 Asian restaurants across the UK say that the cap on immigration will have a serious effect on their ability to recruit skilled chefs from outside the EU to work in the UK.

Again, train up people already here.

Or is it that some unscrupulous employers want to exploit foreign nationals by forcing down pay and conditions for their profits.

Alp Mehmet, of MigrationWatchUK said the temporary limit was:

"a welcome sign that the government is starting as it means to continue".

He said:

"We need carefully to consider how net immigration will be brought down to tens of thousands - we believe about 40,000 is a realistic target - rather than the hundreds of thousands of the last 10 years, and is therefore good news for all our people, including immigrants and future immigrants. Immigration at the levels of the past decade is in no-one's interest."

Although political parties generalise by saying ‘we welcome everyone’, this is a platitude; the reality is they don’t.

The task facing the Tory Government is huge and goes beyond immigration; they need to be able to allow people from all sections from society to become stakeholders.

In that way society can rebalance itself and everyone here regardless of nationality can have a future according to their talents.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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