Unpaywalled archive link: https://archive.is/jlyiS
I’ll try to be brief, but essentially…
- with the demographic distribution we have, we have more British-born people leaving the workforce each year than joining it. This will continue for approximately the next 20 years as boomer’s retire, and is the main reason for work visas being issued
- A combination of significantly improved productivity and immigration is required to maintain the relative strength of the UK economy, and pay for stuff like the NHS - elder care is considerably more expensive than earlier stages of life
- The failures of government to build housing, etc, is not the fault of people who apply to, and secure, jobs and choose to move to the UK
- Equally, the continued failure of capitalism to do anything other than suck up all wealth in to the top 0.01% is not their fault either
- The history of these isles is literally defined by migration and social change. We aren’t even speaking a Brittonic language to have this conversation.
I get why people can be scared by change, and that unfamiliararity breeds suspicion and can be exploited by those who seek to divide and destroy rather than unite and build.
Society, as a concept, has been undermined for a long time now, including things like both adults in a home having to work to afford the rent. This, again, is not the fault of people who want to work here, or see the UK as safe sanctuary from persecution.