Why do most people in the UK seem to object to economic migrants?

Question

I dont understand why asylum seekers and people who are designated to be here illegally cannot obtain the right to work. I dont have a problem with people coming here to work as long as it is all above board and taxes and national insurance is paid (by all workers, not just foreign ones)

let me educate you a bit - people who come here to claim asylum are NOT allowed to work, they are coming to the UK to claim ASYLUM that is that they are fleeing persecution from another country. If they are found to be economic migrants, they are not allowed to claim asylum. We do not accept economic migrants in this country. Other people that come here, might come here to live with other family, or come here illegally, therefore, they are not allowed to claim benefits etc, they are termed, 'no recourse to public funds', they are also not allowed to work. I am asking, what is the sense in this. For you lot saying we cant manage it, i ask you to remember that we are the 4th richest country in the world.

Answer 1

puddy you are absolutely right.
The tabloid press and propaganda from parties like the BNP have meant that many people either do not know the difference between an 'asylum seeker', a 'bogus asylum seeker' an 'illegal immigrant' or and 'economic migrant' or sometimes even and 'EU resident entitled to migrate to the UK if they so wish'.

Genuine asylum seekers should be encouraged to learn the language and work, the process of applying for asylum and being granted leave to remain can take many many years and in this time, these people could become valuable members of our society.

People tend to forget that many genuine 'asylum seekers' have come to the UK seeking refuge from countries that we have involved ourselves in wars against! In my breif spell working in mental health I came across many genuine asylum seekers from Iraq, being treated for severe PTSD.

In terms of migration to the UK we should have stricter policies, perhaps like that in Australia, a points system based on the needs of the society?

In terms of illegal immigration, this should be dealt with quicker.

In terms of people who have been here for many years, this should be dealt with on a case by case basis. I say this because I once had occasion to work with a family where the mother was from Jamaica, she was bought here as a child and did not even know that she was here illegally until as an adult it became clear that she had no recourse to public funds, she and her daughter survived in a tiny one bed flat on the tiny income of her partner (the baby's father). She is still in the process of trying to legalise her stay here even though she was schooled in the UK and has enough qualifications now to go to university - but legally cannot. I think this is very sad as she is an ambitious woman keen to work hard for the society that raised her.

Answer 2

To answer your question:-

I don't think most people object to migrants who come here to work, whether they are economic or asylum seekers. The problem is most don't.

I have heard of numerous cases where: Migrant enters, and begins work. Works for eight months. Goes off sick. Claims benefits therein. Brings over family. Gets housing. Increase in benefits. Does occassional cash work.

This is not necessarily the norm, but you can see that if this does happen (and it does) that many people will get annoyed.

Secondly, there are a number of people caught up in the benefit trap. Where they get numerous benefits, which help to sustain them, but they never really are able to afofrd the better things in life. But as soon as they start work, they lose those benefits, and cannot find work that will pay them sufficiently to outweight the loss of the benefits. I can understand these people, and do not necessarily hate those (who are Brits) caught up in this.What I do not like, is the obvious advantage taken by some migrants, on our soft approach.

There are other numerous reasons why a lot of people dislike migrants, especially the language problems, and the continous watering down of our identity, for the sake of helping the same migrants feel more at home. There is also the cultural differences, desease (and by that I mean the increase in TB since immigration has been on the increase)
which also add to the argument about why we should now be limiting immigration to those who have the ability to fit into our society, and for it's benefit.

I could go on. We basically need more skilled, and un-skilled labour in this country, and while the Govt pays a healthy benefit, and the employers, a not so healthy salary, we will need migrant workers.

Answer 3

They're just lashing out at low hanging fruit. UK has a nasty history of xenophobia and it's not going anywhere. My question is, why are they not going after the BRITONS who are hiring these non-citizens? They are the reason the "problem" exists. Ultimately, it's sort of a European thing. They whine about not having enough labor, so they import people and give them citizenship after a time, but basically ignore them as long as they're working and not in crime. Then, low class natives get all p1ssy because they "prefer" to only live around other natives, and so they turn it into a matter of national pride and bullsh!t like that. The fact is that most of these alleged patriots are lazy louts who only have an interest in persecution and appearing heroic and have few skills to begin with. Same deal in America. Those Minutemen douchebags are nothing but unskilled, violent reactionary trash who would rather attack than develop their talents into something marketable and pretend to be noble about it.

Answer 4

Puddy - I think its because we see people coming from other countries and there are people born and bred here that can't get a job.
Housing is another. I have know someone who is and Housing Inspector and he tells me that all of the council houses that are being renovated etc., are being reserved
for Asylum Seekers. And at the same time I know of families
that can not get a home and are living in one bed flats.
At school. Our children are allowed 10days holiday - yet
if you come from another country that have been allowed two MONTHS. (This is more than one family in our school).
Then we here of people that live here and are claiming for their children that live here and their children that have not
even touched British Soil.
I am sorry but the list goes on.
It is good to see people working - but when do we put a freeze on the people that are coming into our country?
Thats another thing. If they do go home its because they have come over here for their education and in the meantime
claimed NHS.etc.etc...

Answer 5

I try and sit on the side lines on this one because views on this subject are very much split down the middle.

An area close to where I live has always been a little lower class with a large number of the people unemployed for whatever reasons, a lwhile ago a lot of "foreigners/imigrants" were moved it and the local govenrment basically set them up with everything they needed to get by, but not the bare essentials, we're talking colour tv's, video/dvd players, microwaves, music systemsn adn food vouchers for... Mark's & Spencers!!!!! Obvioulsy this serioulsy rocked the boat and caused and awful lot of trouble. I think you also have people that view "foreigners" as coming in to our country to escape whatever hardships their countries threwa t them and then not being willing to adapt to our way of life!

My view (naively) is that we should ALL be able to get on no matter what background we're from, we all live under the same sky and I find it depressing that we all fight the way we do, the world has gone mad.....

Answer 6

If they're asylum seekers then at some point they'd be repatriated back to their own countries.
The Geneva Conventions say in section one that once the situation "stabilises" in a country the asylees from that country can be sent back to their country of origin.

Answer 7

Not all Asylum Seekers and Immigrants are here to work.
Some lie about the reasons they want to be here just to get here.

I think a large proportion of the people who are against these people coming here are simply kicking out against those that come over to abuse the Benefits system and our National Health Service.
Life is better for some on Benefits here than working in their own country.

I reckon it would be better if these new additions to the country had to work for a minimum amount of time before they could claim benefits or have access to free medical care. (By free medical care I mean that they don't have to pay for the treatment in Hospital or from GP's, except prescriptions).

That wouldn't be as much of a drain on resources. (Possibly)


ADDED.
Illegals work in this country.
Asylum seekers work in this country.
At present it is illegal for them to do so.
Therefore we are letting criminals into our country who do not respect our Laws.

Asylum seekers are deemed 'Political refugees', as such they are 'guests' of our government.
Illegal immigrants are here illegally. They cannot gain permission to work if they are not supposed to be here.

Answer 8

Its when they compete with locals for work and drive down wages by working for a wage that would prove unliveable for local people.

Eg my partner is a van driver and wants to train to do his HGV licence. A few years ago, companies were often willing to pay for their driving staff to do their HGV licence because HGV drivers were in short supply. Now however, with the influx of cheap readily available labour from Eastern Europe, employers won't do this anymore as it makes no sense for them to stump up £100s to train up a driver when they can just hire an immigrant cheaply who's already been trained. As a result, people like my other half are stuck in crappy dead end jobs and as we can't afford to finance his retraining ourselves, have no hope of progression. All because the market has been flooded with cheap labour.

Plus there is unemployment in ths country and no not everyone is lazy and sitting on their backsides waiting for their giro, there are people who are desperate for work and can't find it or can't find work that will enable them to pay their rent and bills and eat. the presence if a huge pool if cheap foreign labour contributes to this. they are not "doing the jobs British people won't do" either thats rubbish. A friend of ours recently qualified as a plumber and has found the plumbing scene flooded with cheap Polish plumbers. He can't get enough plumbing work to live on and is working in a pub!

As you are probably not in the situations described above thats why you don't object to economic migrants. To those who are already comfortably off and not affected by economic migration they aren't a problem but to many people in the UK they are. The Government should not let all these people in. They are just coming here to make quick money at the expense of British people who need those jobs with which to live. We are a small island and we cannot provide work for half of Europe as well as our own people. Someone is going to lose out and sadly its us "natives"

Answer 9

They aren't ecomomic, they are taking our jobs and over stretching our already overcrowded smallish country, they work for minumim wage and work long hours in comparison to us Brits who have expensive water rates etc to pay and thus need above minumum wage in most cases to live, but jobs where they should be paying out good wages to British people are going to foreigners, which is disgraceful, I know this from experience, and many don't even have a proper passport for goodness sake, many work at my sisters boyfriends workplace and they need less wages as they often return to their own countries frequently as their wages over here go a long way over there, they shouldn't be here, most of them are too ignorant to speak English and speak in their own tongue, before long us British people will have to move to another country, other European countries don't take them in like we do, they have the right idea, the government need to focus on British people's needs not cheap labour causing problems for most of us, you will probably experience this first hand yourself one day, most foreigners in my local Weatherspoons take your food away before you've finished and after weeks of being there they still don't know what numbers belong to the tables when serving meals, one couldn't be bothered to hand out someone's meal, gave up, hurried back to the kitchen with the meal, and smacked right into someone else, the food went everywhere while customers looked on in amazement and she's been there weeks, if it was a British person they would have been given the sack ages ago, but as they are cheap they keep her there even though she's incompetent, ludicrous!

Answer 10

Its a natural reaction,my son in law ran his own little business,the eco migrants undercut his prices,by not paying suppliers for materials and paying no taxes etc.It put him out of business.Some live together in apalling conditions and work cheap,living on less.You cannot compete with this.Illegal immigrants are people who decide not to do things in a legal manner,if you support this, then there is something lacking in your cognitive processes.