Monday, June 01, 2009

Refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants and ignorance

Britain’s biggest problem is immigration. Thousands of people are flooding in to the country every year putting a strain on our resources and draining the finances of the hardworking taxpayer.

My biggest problem is that too many British residents do not know enough about the subject to have an informed opinion. They are persuaded by soundbites and factually deficient arguments in the media. They allow racist prejudice to affect their point of view.

Here’s a brief explanation of what refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants actually are.

A refugee is a person who flees their own country to escape conflict, persecution or natural disaster. A person who is seeking to be recognized as a refugee is an asylum seeker.

An immigrant is someone who comes to another country to work. An illegal immigrant is someone who enters another country without permission.

Why would you not want an asylum seeker to be granted refugee statues if they are being persecuted in their own country?

If someone wants to come to Britain and contribute to the economy, why kick up such a fuss? Ahhhh, it’s the bloody number of them coming over – that’s the problem. Stop this lot getting in and this proud land will be problem free.

This is the numbers bit:

In the first four months of 2009, 8,830 people applied for asylum in the UK. That equates to roughly 35,320 applications per year. Approximately 60per cent were granted asylum.

In 2006, 591,000 immigrants arrived in the UK to work. During the same year 400,000 actually left the country – emigrated – to work abroad. (These figures are from the The Economic Impact of Immigration report which also said that immigration added £6billion to the UK economy.)

Oh and this:

There are 4.5 million people of working-age claiming benefits in the UK. In other words, there are 4.5m in Britain not working.

There will be genuine claimants... but how many are playing the system? Too bloody many. It’s no secret it goes on. Living off the systems has made this country famous. Too many people are on the sick, skiving, living off taxpayers and watching Jeremy Kyle. (Government figures from November 2008).

That’s 4.5million. This is the real problem. Not all of these are genuinely unemployable or genuinely incapacitated.

This is where Britain has problems - on the hundreds of rundown housing estates were generations of families have never worked or paid rent out from their own pockets.

These same people, British to the core, are happy to condemn the country’s immigration policy without the ability to admit that they are the ones who are running the country in to the ground. These are the ignorants. I’d love to kick them all out.

Further details from these government reports: here and here.

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