Jun 30
Illegal immigration in Britain
There are more than half a million illegal migrants living in Britain, according to Home Office figures. Sheesh. Several things spring to mind: one, it makes a mockery of our supposed security laws against terror because among many of the folk moving into Britain, a handful may have hostile intent, and it also underscores the scale of organised crime now involved in smuggling people into the country, creating fake IDs, etc. It goes without saying on a robustly free market blog like this that immigration per se is a fine thing especially when the migrants entering a nation do not expect, and do not get, a penny of state subsidy and just get on with building a new life. I want to live in a Britain that enterprising people want to join. (Let’s face it, migrants are not exactly rushing to live in Belgium). But illegal migration on this scale can only undermine harmonious relations between ethnic groups and weaken respect for the law.
We don’t need an ID card system to fix this. All that is needed is that no immigrant to the UK gets access to state welfare for a minimum of five years apart from in dire emergencies. It is that simple.
6 Comments so far
Britblog Roundup # 20
Yes, we have made it to a full 20 of our
But what about the implied costs?
The extra competition driving down your wage?
The extra strain on the commons?
The increased price of housing?
I much prefer an immigration auction model to alleiviate the above problems and focus on quality of life in the UK. Money raised from the immigration auction would of course go towards the citizens dividend.
“migrants are not exactly rushing to live in Belgium”
You don’t know much, do you?
John b, easy boy. Britain, on the link you give, is top, with Belgium in eighth spot.
Johnathan – your number is for asylum seekers, and it’s in absolute terms (which is unfair, given the size of Belgium’s population compared to the UK). For foreign inflow per capita, Belgium is 5th (and the UK isn’t in the top 10).
Well John B, fair enough. I did not realise that Belgium with its crushing taxes and so forth was the happening place for folk to emigrate to. I learn something every day!