Community: Real Life

Immigration critics


Alex

Alex is currently doing English at Cambridge. When she isn't reading dusty old books from the massive libraries she can be found writing restaurant reviews for the student papers and checking that her bike hasn't been stolen.

Alex is fed up of the British public moaning about rising levels of immigration. She thinks they're just afraid of a bit of healthy competition.

I'm always interested to hear people criticise the rising level of immigration in the UK. This is not only frustrating, but also puzzling, as the very basis of a modern economy is that people produce more wealth than is necessary to support themselves. This in itself creates more jobs. Do those people who think immigrants are taking their jobs actually envisage a pack of immigrants hiding in the bushes of a car park ready to pounce on an unsuspecting honest worker, and steal his career?

If a person is qualified enough to do a job, why should the fact that they weren't born in the country stop them from getting that work? In a society that favours equality and equal rights, why is it that many still assume that citizenship somehow gives them 'dibs' on their jobs of choice? The fact that an employer chooses to hire immigrants above others must show that in their opinion, that immigrant is more qualified than the other applicants, which means it's the unemployed citizens' fault for not being qualified enough.

It's a fact that in the UK now, there is a shortage of engineers, scientists and doctors, mainly because most of the British people are unqualified to do these jobs. Is it so wrong, then, to give those jobs to immigrants, who are more qualified? Or would you prefer a random guy called Rob, who has never been to medical school, gave you a heart transplant just because he's British instead of a well-qualified Bangladeshi doctor? Immigrants now make up 28% of all engineers, scientists and computer programmers in this country, and I very much doubt this is because of political correctness, i.e. giving them a job because they are in minority.

"Would you prefer a random guy called Rob, who has never been to medical school, gave you a heart transplant just because he's British instead of a well-qualified Bangladeshi doctor?"

It may be true that a lot of money is spent a year on benefits for immigrants in the UK, but what most people fail to take into account is that the amount of money generated by these immigrants is higher than that they are given. How can we discard these obviously valuable members of society, when they give back more than they take out?

Immigrants are not 'displacing' anyone the British workforce simply cannot fill all jobs. At the moment in America there is a great dispute involving Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, allegedly cheating hundreds of immigrants out of wages. Are the British and Americans who complain about this so-called injustice simply scared of a little healthy competition? In our society, competition allows both sides to develop and flourish, driven by the desire to succeed. Without competition there would be nothing to strive for, and humanity would succumb to laziness, which would undoubtedly end our civilisation. Who knows if America would have put man on the moon without the ferocious competition with the USSR? When competition has accounted for some of the greatest breakthroughs of our time, why are we discouraging it in Western society today?

If the job goes to the applicant with the best qualifications, then in my opinion, the only logical thing seems to be to work harder in school and achieve better qualifications than the immigrant, not complain about how he doesn't deserve the job because he wasn't supposed to be here in the first place. This would result in a population of intelligent qualified people, and wouldn't that be welcomed in our society? Saying an immigrant shouldn't get a job in their country of residence simply because they shouldn't be there in the first place is the same as saying a boy who got stuck up a tree shouldn't be helped because he shouldn't have climbed it in the first place.

Angry? Submit a rant


Bookmark with:What are these?

Also on TheSite.org