recently its because we need skilled and cheap labour to fill the holes in our health and buisness system.
Housing shortages is not a direct immigration issue[1], its a policy issue. People of a certain type do not want high rise buildings near them. people of another different type are really happy because they can now build less and sell for more. Yet another class of people go apoplectic when its suggested that social housing should be built (my taxes! why do they get something for nothing.)
In short, we are our own worst enemies.
[1] net migration at 1 million was utterly insane, and I'm still not sure how a government that lead brexit with "we'll control our borders" managed to be so divorced from what it was doing. Thats rhetorical by the way its short-termism and utter utter incompetence.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_pyramid
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_pyramid#Demographic...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_K...
The UK doesn't even have that terrible of shape compared to many western countries, but a lot of that is because of immigration.
Countries like Japan, S. Korea, and Italy are going to have far worse problems.
I concluded it is in fact OK to bring in young working people from elsewhere to fund the retirement and social services of those already here and ageing. I was thinking there would be a problem as those immigrants in turn aged and switched from net contributors to net claimants, but I hadn't taken into account that they like all of us die off as they age: indeed, what makes the pyramid a pyramid.
Only a devastating collapse of the population would cause it to go tits up
Another solution is to increase the sources of funding. For example, in the United States, your Social Security contributions are capped once your income exceeds approximately $160,000. Eliminate that cap, and include income from other sources (i.e., taxes on estates, capital gains, and buy-borrow-die) in the Social Security tax calculation.
Unless you are Norway or the UAE and sitting on a massive sovereign wealth fund how else can a national welfare system possible function?
Irrespective of one's views on the migrant question, this is unsustainable. For instance, the National Health System (NHS) has recently been sending patients to Poland and Lithuania to try to relieve pressure on the waiting lists.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-...
That's neither true nor irrespective of your views on "the migrant question", which are evidently informed by an explicitly anti-immigration interest group.
A million immigrant workers claiming "some form of in-work benefit" is not significant. See e.g. £23B unclaimed benefits last year.
Your fact about NHS waiting times doesn't support any claim you've made.
It's like you're trolling, but perhaps the best interpretation is you're a GBNews victim?
Isn't the relevant statistic more just how much tax income foreign born individuals give the government vs how much they take out?
I don't have a source on hand, but I thought immigration was a net positive in terms of tax revenue minus social assistance, at least in the US.
Alternatively, use the computer system that manages the in-work benefits to find out which companies are exploiting the current system and tax them to fund their own workforce.
Its more generous than the USA. but its not generous. You try living on benefits
> 1.15 million foreign born individuals claiming some form of in-work benefit.
Indeed, but working age foreigners are way cheaper than boomer pensioners. The problem is, a large proportion of those foreigner are working to wipe the arses of said pensioners.
Moreover those benefits are a a state subsidy for cheap workers.
> Irrespective of one's views on the migrant question, this is unsustainable. For instance, the National Health System (NHS) has recently been sending patients to Poland and Lithuania to try to relieve pressure on the waiting lists.
Which is ironically unrelated to foreigners.
firsly, if your stuck on a waiting list not being able to work, you're not claiming in work benefits.
second the NHS has been chronically mismanaged for about 14 years, and needs staffing reforms to stop it bleeding staff (and driving up immigration)
thirdly sending people abroad to get treated is cheaper, and should return them to the workforce quicker, so reducing load on the benefits system
Lastly, immigrants are overwhelmingly young and free of chronic diseases. Its super hard to work an emigrate, find and keep a casual job if you need dialysis every week. Moreover, you don't get access to benefits instantly, and you run the risk of going undocumented which means no bank account, no public services and no legitimate housing. Its not like the states where you can carry on as normal. You're basically reduced to living on the streets or at the hands of organised crime.
We joined a successful agricultural union (the EEC, in 1973) and remained a member of its successor for decades and had fantastic access to produce, and some of the cheapest food in the EU (also thanks to a highly competitive grocery sector)
Even since leaving, the food supply issues have been very minor.
We may have food insecurity in the future but I'm confused if you're implying we've had any serious food insecurity the last few decades
The World Food Programme define it as "Food security exists when people have access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development, and an active and healthy life". They also link to the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification), which hasn't even ranked much of Europe, I imagine for quite obvious reasons.
The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) defines it as "the generally accepted definition of food security is "a situation in which all people at all times have access to adequate quantities of safe and nutritious food to lead a healthy and active life".
Importing food can strengthen food security. Complete self-sufficiency can be a weakness too - we have one bad year of weather and oops sorry people starve because we did away with our all produce import systems?
Systemic resilience to me seems more important that the exact origin of the food.
We are a country adept at international trade and I don't see why we should stop over some odd notion that imports are bad.
Many, many other countries import a lot of their food. We are not weird outliers.
Which countries do you think we should model ourselves over, out of curiosity? Who excels at self sufficiency (except the US - we aren't all blessed at having the power, geography and climate of the US. Nor frankly do we think their agricultural system is an example to copy)
Later
Regarding WWII, of course the entire continent learnt a lot of hard lessons - particularly about agricultural policy. I already mentioned the EEC. Desire for peace was a big reason for agricultural co-operation, if I recall my history correctly. The continent with many countries that loved wars would have no problem going to war over food
Besides the USA there are a number of countries which are at least mostly food secure including Canada, Russia, India, Brazil, France, Ukraine, Australia, and New Zealand. Some of those do depend on imports of fossil fuels and fertilizers to maintain production.