Friday 15 April 2011

Immigration and the cap

Seeing as we are 'allowed' to talk about immigration again, and the cat is out of the bag and all that, is it not odd that politicians are still lying to us?

The figure, not quoted by Mr Cameron, which tells you more about what is really happening, is the annual one for non-EU arrivals. For a long time now, that has been in the order of 300,000 a year. Add to it the illegals – 155,000 of whom, says Mr Cameron, were found to have been illegally claiming benefits. Then add EU citizens, who all have an absolute right to come here and use our public services. In sum, you have a society which, in large areas, would have been unrecognisable only 20 years ago. When Mr Blair declared, with apparent absurdity, in 1997, that Britain was a “young country”, perhaps he meant that he intended it to be something it had never been before. If so, he succeeded.

The upside is, I suppose, that voters appear to be privy to this state of affairs as well. None of the comments on this topic believe Cameron will do anything substantial (why are dependents of students given visas?) and if they do, they point out that it is far too late.

Only time will tell if they are right.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Umm, if a student is married why shouldn't his (or her) spouse and kids be able to live with him?

However that doesn't mean the spouse should get an automatic right to work. Perhaps the kids should have to pay to attend a state school too. Because now you can have fake marriages where one partner comes to work and one comes to study. Single students need to prove they can pay for their course before they get a visa so why should married students be able to get money from their spouse working?

13th Spitfire said...

Because the dependents where, as found in a sample study, 75% bogus. Moreover I daresay few students have passed the maturity level which would allow them to 'marry' I do of course not include post graduates in this. As is reflected in the current rule change. But for an undergrad (with the exception of mature students, but there will be few of those) to bring his supposed spouse I find a bit ridiculous.

James Higham said...

That's the good part - that people do seem to be more awake to Cameron and the spin, accompanied by the total lack of resolve.