Just wondering.
2007-08-27 23:19:16 · 22 answers · asked by Barbara Doll to you 7 in Politics & Government ➔ Immigration
I don't think the minimum wage has a bearing on it at all. It didn't stop illegals trying to get in here before it came about so why should it change them. They have a perception that we are an easy touch and that the streets are paved with gold.
2007-08-27 23:35:51 · answer #1 · answered by Hot British Guy 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The minimum wage is an outrage.
It gives employers the freedom to drop wages to the minimum and employ foreigners in roles that BRITISH people used to quite happily do.
Many people think the minimum wage is a "good" thing, but think about it in reverse. Hmm not a good idea at all.
We'd have the same amount of immigrants either way, they only come here for the housing, NHS & free money. Oh the handful that come here to kill us on our tubes & buses when they have settled in & taken all they can from us.
2007-08-28 01:07:57 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't think it would make a difference because at present companies are legally allowed to pay them under the minimum wage - most of the Polish workers are working for about £2.00ph. Then again if the wages were better for us there wouldn't be any jobs for immigrants and low unemployment. I think it is probably our own fault we have them all coming in - 40 odd years ago no one in this country wanted jobs driving buses and our government trained lots from Pakistan and India to do these jobs and then they saw what our country had to offer.
2007-08-27 23:42:14 · answer #3 · answered by Jackie M 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A minimum wage protects the worker from being exploited but also encourages deceitful employers to employ immigrants who are maybe unaware of the rules.
I'm not sure it makes a big difference as there will always be unscrupulous bosses who won't pay the minimum wage and break the law.
2007-08-27 23:26:13 · answer #4 · answered by Pagan Man 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's not just wage levels that attract immigration from countries whose populations are dirt-poor. There's the medical and dental services; housing too.
And then there is the problem that unscrupulous people in those countries exploit the dreams of a better life held by those poverty-stricken millions, take them for everything they have and stick them into the backs of a succession of goods vehicles to get them into the UK illegally.
A couple of years ago 17 of them (Albanian but they could have been from anywhere) turned up at my workplace in the back of a trailer that came in from Frankfurt. We think they were put on board at Calais in the trailer holding area. When they were taken into custody they were given travel warrants and asked by the local police to make their own way to Croydon for processing !! (I'm so sure that they all arrived safely - NOT).
The main problem is that the worldwide perception of Britain is that it's easy to sneak in. And they must know that they're not entering the country legally. Sitting in the back of a tautliner for 600 miles amongst industrial machinery is not - in the mind of a sensible or law-abiding person - ever going to be considered as the "normal" way to pass through a Customs checkpoint. When you realise that what happened at my workplace is going on all the time, is it any wonder that the attraction to British shores is so great for both the travellers and those who exploit them?
Wage levels are part of the problem, but we need to get tough on the frontline and show those who would abuse Britain's hospitality that the honeymoon is over. I'm talking about *instant* deportation for discovered illegals - no more of this holding centre nonsense. Holding centres are simply the halfway houses between arrival and disappearance, created by a government that doesn't have the b*lls to do what they know is right, and from which inmates seem to "escape" at conveniently regular intervals, never to be seen again.
2007-08-28 00:51:02 · answer #5 · answered by HUNNYMONSTA 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Getting rid of the minimum wage wouldn't have any immediate effect. Because prevailing wages are still currently greater than the minimum wage in general. Which is a good thing.
Getting rid of the minimum wage would just make it ok for employers to ratchet down wages without limit, which of course they would seek to do, regressively, as more and more illegals entered the work force.
2007-08-27 23:35:12 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It really wouldn't make much, if any, difference.
Not many immigrants can get minimum wage employment and /or are employed by less than legal businesses whom pay a pitiful amount.
If you were in a country and you needed to send money home and your choices were low wage or no wage?
2007-08-27 23:35:32 · answer #7 · answered by Spammy 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
most of the immigrants are on less than the minimum wage so i dont imagine it would make any difference. The reason they are getting most of the jobs is because they rae willing to work for less than the minimum wage.
2007-08-27 23:33:36 · answer #8 · answered by Catwhiskers 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
We would still have them coming here as they see Britain as a paradise in terms of facilities, health care etc, many of them come from shabby conditions and so would still come here and of course they would know only too well that without a minimum wage (most of them are prepared to work for peanuts for long hours to make the money up) they would seem more appealing to employers as British people expect more money, rightfully so to match the inflated costs of running a home in the UK and so forth.
2007-08-27 23:32:05 · answer #9 · answered by Rainbowz 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Depends on what the wages were. If people were getting 50p an hour I think there would be less immigrants because its less then they get in their own country.
However, no company would get a person to work for 50p an hour. Everyone would go on benefits.
2007-08-27 23:42:22 · answer #10 · answered by futuretopgun101 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋