Do the British really hate foreigners that much?

The government has so far come up with two ideas to reduce cap immigration, both of which would be highly damaging to the country:

  1. Let fewer students in
  2. Reduce the number of foreign workers

Take the first as it has had less attention. Educating foreign students is highly profitable for Britain and earns huge amount of money. It is like an extended, and far more profitable, version of tourism.It is unlikely that universities and colleges will get money from another source, so it will mean less money to educate British students or for research, and less foreign exchange flowing into the economy.

The problem with the second is fairly obvious. The workers who get visas at the moment are highly skilled. They are often being transferred internally within companies. The likely result is not that the jobs will go to British workers, but that the jobs will move to where the skills are. A country with a less educated workforce will be a poorer one, economically and culturally.

It will also encourage companies to move global or European head quarters to countries where they can employ the people they need.

The latest idea is not giving the spouses and children of these highly skilled workers visas. Does anyone think that people who are able to get good jobs in their home countries, and a good many others, will choose to go somewhere that separates them from their families? Even those that can be persuaded to come, will demand more pay, which they will promptly send home to their families, rather than spending it in Britain.

So what is the alternative? What about explaining to the voters that almost everyone who comes into the country from outside the EU has proved that they benefit the country, and Britain should be grateful they choose to come: that is the truth, whatever the Daily Mail says.

The British do not hate foreigners. They are fed a stream of xenophobic news that makes them think that every sponger in the world is moving to Britain, and that Britain is crowded. Tell them the truth, and keep telling them the truth.

2 thoughts on “Do the British really hate foreigners that much?

  1. That is my point Charles. Unrepresentative bigots are able to dominate the debate by presenting their biased opinions as facts. No one seems to want to challenge them. When did any politician or major media outlet say “actually, Britain has significantly lower population density that lots of perfectly nice places like The Netherlands, Japan, Sri Lanka, etc.” or “most immigrants, even illegals and asylum seekers, are either hard working people who do difficult jobs for low wages, keeping inflation low, or skilled people who create jobs and wealth for all”.

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