I’ll not get too bogged down, Jake because it is evident that we will never agree. However, since you raised an analogy with your work, perhaps you could consider this. What is happening in the UK today is rather like your company being forced to keep people on its payroll who either cannot or will not do the work required of them. Instead of getting what work you can from them - since you are paying a tidy sum to keep them alive - you choose to allow them to stay at home whilst hiring more suitable staff. That’s what’s happening in the UK. There are more than one million 16-24 year olds without work. Two thirds of them have never worked. They cannot all be so indolent and useless that they cannot do some of the less skilled work that the million or more immigrants who have arrived in the past few years seem able to do.
Mr Nick Hurd, “Minister for Civil Society” (whatever that might be) suggested today that many school leavers “lack the grit and self-control” for work. I believe he is right. I also believe this problem has not developed overnight. That’s the problem that the UK needs to address and it is that problem that is stifling the UK‘s prosperity. It does not matter how profitable and efficient businesses are. By shipping in immigrant staff when there is labour already here they are simply exacerbating the problem. Effectively they are supporting an ever growing army of idle souls that will eventually crush what little life there is left of their companies and the nation’s economy.
I would agree with you, Kromo, if the jobs undertaken by immigrants were predominantly high skilled. But they are not. Go to any reasonably sized hotel in any large town or city. You will find the vast majority of the housekeeping, bar and catering staff are from abroad. The agricultural business would be virtually defunct without foreign labour. The caring industry similarly so. These are not highly skilled jobs. A school leaver can be taught t clean hotel rooms or work as a kitchen hand.
There is no need, Feed, to believe that our leaving the EU would mean the immediate forced repatriation of those already here (any more than it would mean BMW no longer selling their cars to UK customers). In many ways free movement ov labour afforded by the EU has cured the problem of lack of suitable staff, but had it not been available some other remedies more suited to the UK’s economy would have been found.
I don’t blame immigrants for seeking work here. Most of them are diligent and hard working (especially the lovely young lady from Lithuania who cuts my hair).. But in providing work for foreigners whilst allowing youngsters to languish on the dole we have landed ourselves with a huge social and economic problem, and it could have been avoided.