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When will the Tories realise that mass migration is making us poor? by Nick Timothy - 25.09.22

Writer's picture: Ben PhilipsBen Philips

For a party committed to honour its manifesto pledge and lower immigration levels, the government are going about it in a mighty strange way argues Nick Timothy in today's Telegraph.


"Three years on, Government policy is delivering the opposite. The number of work visas issued last year is up 72 per cent compared to 2019, student visas by 71 per cent, and family visas by 61 per cent.


Through humanitarian schemes, more than 140,000 Hong Kongers and over 150,000 Ukrainians have applied to come to Britain. More than 63,000 others applied for asylum – up 77 per cent since 2019 – and hundreds of migrants cross the Channel daily."


We shouldn't be surprised: these numbers are the result of conscious policy decisions:


"Universities are dependent on foreign students for income. The new points-based system is obscenely generous. And so the numbers are unprecedented. This huge movement of people is greater than in the post-war period, and greater even than under Tony Blair, who started the most recent immigration wave in 1997."


Worse, Liz Truss and Kwarsi Kwarteng appear intent on doubling-down on the policy as a means of turbo-charging growth:


The Prime Minister and Chancellor want to increase the number of jobs on the shortage occupation list, extend the seasonal agricultural workers scheme, increase visas for other sectors, and relax English language rules for immigrants. As ministers negotiate a trade agreement with India, they are under pressure to further liberalise visa rules for Indian workers and students, and grant a youth mobility scheme similar to that for Australians.


It's daft politics - driving a wedge through the coalition which brought them to power in the first place. But there is a very high social and cultural price to pay as well:


"As recent communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in Leicester shows, diversity is not simply “our greatest strength” but a challenge that requires patience and stability to overcome."


And even on economic grounds - the basis of the revised policy - the case does not stack up. Indeed it has contributed to the very problems the government says it is now trying to solve:


"The Truss and Kwarteng argument is that economic growth has been too low through this period of historically high immigration. Far from contributing to “growth, productivity and innovation”, mass immigration has undermined all three. It has left the British economy addicted to a supply of low-skilled, low-paid migrant workers, with too little public and private investment in the skills and technology that improve productivity.


Mass immigration has already made our economic problems worse: we cannot expect a cause of our illness to be its cure."


The full article can be read below with a link to the original here:





Daily Telegraph



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