anotheoldgit
Prepare for a shock. I agree with most of your last paragraph.
You make a very good point with regards to skilled workers, especially in the health sector, coming here, where their skills may be better exploited at home.
But that's the fundamental drive behind good immigration..bringing people in who can fill a skills gap.
But we have to remember the difference between immigration from the expanded Europe and immigration from elsewhere. Different rules apply.
Regarding your earlier question on the positive/negative impact on the economy, I read a very interesting article about this in The Independent a couple of months back, which stated that immigrants benefit the nation to a tune of �300million.
Here's the link:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/ article1220858.ece
Unfortunately you need to subscribe to the online edition to read the whole thing.
However, here's an article by Sir Digby Jones (ex-Director General of the CBI), which you
can read without subscribing on the benefits of immigrants and their effect on the job market:
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/ article1220815.ece