Saturday, August 26, 2006

Immigration and Old and New world problem

There are signs of intelligent life on Great Britian. At least that what the results of a poll taken by the Sunday Times reported on in The Brussels Journal would seem to indicate:

Following the MI5 exposure of a gigantic home-grown Islamic terrorist plot in early August and the rapidly approaching integration of Romanian and Bulgarian territories into the EU, the British public have begun to demand a tougher policy on immigration. In a poll conducted for the Sunday Times, it was revealed that “half the population has serious doubts that allowing foreigners to settle in Britain is good for the country.” The key findings on the public’s view of immigration were as follows:

1. How much do you agree or disagree with the
following statement?

‘Immigration is generally good for
Britain’

Agree: 43%
Disagree: 45%
Neither: 10%
Don’t know: 2%

2. Should laws on immigration be relaxed, kept
same, made tougher, or don’t know?

Relaxed: 6%
Kept same: 17%
Made tougher: 75%
Don’t know: 2%

3. Should the government set a strict limit on
the number of immigrants allowed into Britain each year?

Yes: 77%
No: 21%
Don’t know: 2%

Interestingly, immigration is not straightforwardly seen as good for Britain, laws on immigration should be toughened and the government, against all its wishes, faces a public demanding a strict limit on the number of immigrants allowed into Britain each year.

Although James McConalogue begins by talking about the terrorist plot the bulk of his analysis concerns the economic impact of mass Eastern European immigration on the UK's economy.

It would seem that we Americans have one more thing in common with the mother country. A significant problem with large scale immigration which creates economic and national security problems. We also have in common the fact that our respective governments are working overtime to make the problem worse, not better.