Friday, March 07, 2014
Pro-imigration lobby's usual heavy distortion in seizing on a point from a report
The 'PC' totalitarian pro-immigration lobby has seized on a point made in a just-published report to claim that mass immigration is not the problem for employment of indigenous workers it has been claimed, but as usual this is a massive distortion. The impact on unemployment by non-EU workers is a highly restricted and rather deceitful focus. It is EU more than non-EU migrants who typically come to the UK for work reasons. Non-EU migrants come here for reasons of 'family reunion' or as a student; and of those who come to work they mostly have to meet 'highly skilled migrant' criteria, as workers with skill-sets the UK has in short supply. The real source of unemployment for UK workers comes from the within-EU migration, which is over a third of all immigration. In any case, the employment impact is not merely displacement in terms of unemployment but of decreased wages, under-employment – those forced to work part-time or on zero-hours contracts for lack of secure full-time – absence of training, and the blocking of internal relocation to London and the south-east. On top of this is the hidden impact of the huge numbers who come here fraudulently or remain as over-stayers. As ever, there is never anything like a full picture. It's hardly surprising that extra unemployment of UK workers for every ten non-EU migrants is roughly one rather than two; and is no basis for revising down concern for the multiple serious problems of mass immigration; not least re employment.
# posted by Steve Moxon @ 12:12 am 
