It is a same that a question such as this looks to the extreme to make it's point, and many of the answers do exactly the same. It is no good harking back to the days or yore in order to make a point. Nor is it of any value to trot out unending examples of movement around the globe and or directly into Britain.
It is not the 1800's nor the 1900's. This is the 21st Century, the world has changed immeasurably over the past 40 years, leave alone the several hundred that some have alluded to in their responses.
The size of our island has not altered, however we now have a population topping 65 Million souls, we, like so many Nations are struggling to cope with the requirements of our population, certainly in terms of infrastructure, such as Hospitals, Housing, Schools, and all manor of things.
Prices in the UK have gone up by around 40% wages have hardly moved at all, effectively we (the majority) are getting poorer and the margins which are the maker or breaker of industry are being shafted.
Movement of peoples across continents was historically based upon trade, or as was the case in many times conquest, but those days too are over. Today movement is almost all about work, and that is fine so long as there is spare capacity and need in the target Nation, but insofar as the UK is concerned, there is not.
The financial imperative is such that there is no value in companies trying to bring in people from similar economies, lets face it a French or German is hardly likely to come to the UK for the kind of wages that they would be paid, unless of course they were in a high end job, so it is the basic labour force that is being encouraged to come, and again, these will not be drawn from our near European neighbours.
However, as the gates are opened to Nations much further into the Eastern part of Europe, there has become available a labour force that will work for a fraction of what we term the minimum wage. In fact you can get up to 4 people to work for the cost of 1 UK citizen per hour.
I know that there are many who make the blanket statement that we should welcome all people from all cultures etc, and in an ideal world, I would agree, but it is not an ideal world. Every job that goes to an Eastern European is one less job for a British citizen, one more British citizen having to draw benefits and unable to contribute to the revenue. There is also another consequence, immigrants and the children born to them in the past 8 years have increased the population by 10,000,000. Any way you cut this mustard it is a massive drain on our already struggling resources, The Government reckon that of that number 3 Million are adults, therefore 7 million are children and must be in receipt of child benefit, and of course a large proportion of the parents will be in receipt of hand outs of one form or another, after all, very few came here and purchased houses.
It is now said that we are going to be very strict and we will not allow them to have any benefit unless they have been here 3 Months, really, not much of a struggle for them to achieve that particular bench mark especially having given up everything to get here, this will be a minor inconvenience and will not deter any from coming.
To try and better your life is perfectly natural, but we have a duty to protect our own first, lets not forget that we are so strapped, that 750,000 Brits are reliant on food banks to put a meal on the table.
31,000 elderly people died last year because they could not afford to heat their homes properly or eat the right food, 9 Million of our employed are on part time hours and have to supplement their wages with benefits. 1.5 Million are on "No hours" contracts, unsure if they will get paid or not one week to the next.
So, yes let us welcome those that wee need, and that can bring something to the table, but we must control the numbers who are coming simply to suck on the benefit nipple. We must take control of our borders, this is not harsh, look at Australia, they have got it right, they have a multicultural society, but they are still Australia, they balance the amount that they can allow in and are rigid in application of the rules insofar as what new entrants can expect. There is nothing inhumane about the way Australia goes about this business.
The EU and all its rules have taken away our ability to control any of this, and it must stop. The BNP are not the answer, the only answer is UKIP
Immigration has a long tradition in Britain BUT it has traditionally been Northern European immigration ie Dutch, Swedish, German etc
NOT Pakistani
NOT Afghan
NOT African
NOT Iraqi
NOT Somalian etc etc....
Think about it, if Britain has "always been multicultural" like these idiots say, then why is it when you look at old black and white photos of Britain, EVERYONE IS WHITE....In other words our immigration history has NOT been third world, it has been white EuropeanThe only way to do something about it is support a nationalist party like BNP otherwise just sit back and watch our history and heritage dissapear for all time.