Maybe, just maybe, I’ve
been one of the hundreds and thousands of British people that have had their
minds and beliefs poisoned and influenced by the increasingly Pinocchio media
on the subject of immigration. Maybe my
views and opinions would have stayed the same if I was still living in London
or what was described as the “East End overspill” of Collier Row in Romford but
my current, is the word softening, mellowing or even maturing, attitude has more
than certainly been influenced by my 27 years in Spain as an immigrant myself
and spending more time investigating so-called facts in respect of the EU
Referendum.
Yes, as an
immigrant. Not an expat, but an
immigrant. The popular dictionary definition of an immigrant is: “a person who comes to live
permanently in a foreign country.”
After so many years in Spain, I couldn’t be described in any other
way. I fit it perfectly.
What
about expat or expatriate? This word is
defined as: “to withdraw (oneself) from residence in or allegiance to one’s
native country.” It can also mean; “to
banish or to exile.” Now, I’m not going
to deal in semantics but I believe I can only be described as an “immigrant”. The definition of an expatriate almost
suggests that someone has left their native country under some kind of a cloud;
that they almost had to leave the country; escaping from it. The last sentence could certainly be
attributed to many but not all! It also
suggests that your allegiance to (in this case) the UK is no more. If you look not so deeply at word itself, it
suggests that you are no longer a patriot of your country of birth and want
nothing to do with it whatsoever, and yet a significant number of British
people living in Spain simply want to transfer and pick up what they had in the
UK and bring it here. Then what do they
do? Complain about Spain and the Spanish
and the laws and the customs; some even want to become local figures of
authority and some want to “show these people how to run their country!” My experience tells me that the biggest
complainers about “the bloody Spanish” are the same people who left the UK
because of “the bloody foreigners taking over everywhere!”
Many
of you would’ve listened to the audio clip from an interview on BBC Radio 5
Live last week featuring “expats” living close to Torrevieja in this part of
Spain. They discussed the forthcoming EU Referendum and this particular couple
had opposing views on how they would vote.
The husband, voting to remain, said that he’d heard that it would take
10 years to resolve everything so by the time he’d reached 86, it wouldn’t
matter what was decided. She, on the
other hand, would vote to leave because of “immigration” and “the benefits
problem” in the UK. Quite quickly, the
interviewer suggested that she was no different being an immigrant to Spain.
“Oh
no, that’s different, because we bought a house here and spend our pension
money here.” As for “the benefits
problem”, she didn’t expand her statement but it was pretty easy to see where
she was coming from.
It’s
true. Almost 100% of British immigrants living in Spain either sold their house
in the UK or had saved up sufficient money in their lifetime to buy property. Others bought a business with that money and
either bought or rented property. Nobody
came here penniless, although some may have left Spain a few years (or even
months) later in that state! Therefore,
millions of euro was brought into the Spanish economy, and the immigrants
living and working here spent their hard earned savings, monthly pensions and
wages locally too.
Does
that lady sitting outside the bar in the Torrettas in Spain really believe that it’s only the
British that have money and the right to go and live in another country in the
EU? Could she not possibly believe for
one minute that the hundreds and thousands (possibly a few million) of
immigrants from other EU countries have also entered the UK to live, to buy or
rent property, to study, to work and to have a better lifestyle as she and her
husband have chosen to do? Perhaps she’s under the impression that they
all go to the UK penniless, get free housing and live a life of riley on
benefits? Maybe, just maybe, she
believes the increasingly growing headlines of the UK gutter press and the dumbed-down
TV news programmes attempting to appeal to the masses like I used to? Yes, like I USED to. I’ve started to research for myself some of
the daily headlines that are purported to be facts, and I’ve surprised myself
on occasions.
Figures from 2014 and released by the Department for Work
& Pensions (DWP) show that there are 1.73m EU nationals working in the UK,
equal to 5.7% of all people in work. There are 1.19m non-EU nationals working in
the UK, which is 3.9%. The employment
rate for non-UK born workers is 70%, compared to the 73.2% of UK born workers.
The employment rate for EU nationals living in the UK is 79%. The UK is the only EU country to have a lower
unemployment rate for migrants than nationals (7.5% to 7.9% respectively),
suggesting a key reason for migration to the UK is to find work.
The same report claims that less than 5% of EU migrants
are claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance, while less than 10% are claiming other DWP
working-age benefits. On top of this, the think tank Class found that of those
who claim Jobseekers’ Allowance, 91.5% are UK nationals. Additionally, among
unemployed migrants, only 1% claim unemployment benefits, compared to the 4% of
unemployed UK nationals who are claimants. Rather than being “benefit
tourists”, migrants to the UK make a net contribution, as they pay more in
taxes than they take out in benefits.
Current UK rules state that migrants from the EU have to wait three months before they can claim for
Jobseekers’ Allowance. This is the same for accessing child benefit and child
tax credits. To stay longer than
three months, they have to be in work, actively seeking work, or have a genuine
chance of being hired. Either that, or they have to prove that they have the resources to remain without being a burden
on public services. EU migrants
simply cannot enter the UK without the two proverbial pennies to rub together
and claim thousands of pounds in benefits and get a free house in exactly the
same way as British migrants couldn’t enter Spain and expect the same.
A
complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the subject is confirmed by a
recent social media thread I read on the subject of the migrant camps at
Calais. “This shows why we should leave
the EU!” said one faceless contributor. I’m
convinced that many thousands in the UK will vote to leave the EU for a similar
reason without realising or even sitting down to think for one moment as to why
and will simply be picturing those in Calais as they mark their ballot
paper. Now, this may come as a shock to
Mr or Mrs Faceless contributor but the people in Calais are NOT migrants from
the EU. If they were, they would
already be in the UK after purchasing their ferry or Eurostar tickets for their
cars or via the coach journey or indeed have already landed at one of the UK
airports. In the same way as we entered
Spain in fact. They are LEGAL immigrants
from the EU.
The
thousands of people in Calais and across the continent of Europe staying in
other camps are alleged refugees, asylum seekers or economic migrants and have
no bearing on the UK’s standing in the EU or out of it, and is another story
for another blog on another day. There
are no people fitting those descriptions that come from countries that are
members of the EU. Whether the UK is in
the EU or not, and whether they decide to close their borders or not, people
from all over the world will still attempt to seek asylum or refuge in the
country. It won’t stop simply because
the UK is no longer a member of the EU.
Because
there are no real facts available, those British immigrants living in the EU
that are eligible to vote on in June are in a kind of limbo as to which box to
put their ‘X’ in. I can’t vote due to
living here too long, so I’m something of a neutral in many respects. As I’ve written in many places before, if I
were enfranchised I would have no option other than to vote to “remain”. Despite all the “facts” thrown my way, I am
still not convinced that a vote to “leave” would have no effect and would have
nothing to worry about to affect my chosen future to live in an EU country as a
British immigrant.
And
this takes me right back to the couple outside the popular Sacko’s Bar near to
Torrevieja. IF the UK voted to leave the
EU, helped by the vote of the wife of the couple, and IF her free healthcare
and annual pension increases are affected, trust me, she’ll be the first to complain,
and all because she didn’t like other people living in EU countries being able
to enjoy the same freedom of movement and choice that she and her husband have
been allowed to enjoy, and believed all she sees and hears about “the benefits
problem”.
Finally,
and perhaps more controversially for some, I believe that IF the UK votes to “leave”
it will be swayed by people’s views on immigration and no other reason. They won’t think of their jobs or anything
else; and contrary to what the media would have you believe are not members of the
compassionate society that care about refugees.
They are in a minority, albeit a significant one.
So,
that one single action will prove, in one vote, that a certain Enoch Powell was
right. Right all along that the majority
British psyche is, and always will be, anti-foreigner and will never accept
immigration on any significant scale.....as long as they are not the immigrants
themselves!
