A PERSPECTIVE ON IMMIGRATION

Jun 13, 2016
3 min read

With the upcoming EU referendum a lot of talk has been bandied about, particularly with the Remain Camp branding the Leave Campaign as being 'Racist' for not wanting uncontrolled immigration to the UK.

We've been told that if the immigration rate stays as it is today, we would have to build a city the size of Newcastle every year.

This might be 'scare tactics' by the Brexits. But if this were only half-true, that would mean finding space for another big town every two years.

Just to keep up with the rate of immigration as it is now we need to build one house every four minutes (throughout a 24 hour period) to house everybody comfortably - not to mention building more schools, more hospitals, more civic buildings, more prisons, more medical centres, more shops, more libraries, more car-parks !

How can we possibly do this? We just don't have the room ! We're a small island. Okay, we have some space left (at the moment). We have our green belt (which is already being eaten away by new housing estates). We have our countryside, our forests and parks. And yes, we could build on all of these. But what about our quality of life then? Okay, forget the open countryside and our few remaining forests and wild spaces - do we really want to give up our parks? And it would come to this - of course it would - if, for the foreseeable future, we can't curb the influx of migrants to the UK. We would all be living in an unending concrete jungle ! And our open spaces will be gone - for good.

National political decisions are sometimes hard to relate to your own life, and how they would affect you. I've always found that the best way is to bring them down to a domestic level, imagining that your house is your country.

Now - Imagine this . . .

You are a young couple with two children, and live in a detached, roomy, house, with a fair-sized garden. Immigrants need to be housed, and you decide to take some in. You give up your study to house a family. You now need to share your kitchen and bathroom with this new family. But that's okay, they're paying you rent which makes you better off, and you can live with that. More people come, tapping on your door, and you take them in, shifting your children into one bedroom to make room for them. And you're richer because they, too, are paying you rent. But now you're sharing your kitchen and bathroom with two

additional families. You need an extension - another kitchen and bathroom - and from the extra rent you're getting, you can afford it.

More people come, and ask if they can set up home in your garage. Another family come, asking to use your shed. You agree, but it's getting a bit much now. Your car has to stand on the drive, with your lawnmower in the boot. Your two kitchens are always crowded with people cooking their meals, and you can't have a shower (or anything else!) without queuing for hours.

Even more homeless people turn up on your doorstep. You don't know where to put them. Your house and outbuildings are full. The only space left is your garden, but you've already built an extension, so there's not much left of that!

Where do you go from here . . . ? What do you do now . . . ?

In the 1950's we had 40 - 50,000 immigrants, every year, coming to the UK. There was work for them, there were houses, and they integrated well into the indigenous communities. No problem.

We now have nearly 400,000 people coming to our shores every single year. We can't cope with this number now, let alone for the long-term. (And don't forget that all these people will have children, and their children will have children . . . )

It's not being racist to say that we just can't house, and look after, all the people in the world who want to come and live here, much as we would like to. We can't grow our island, we can't add an extension, we can't build more space. We have a finite piece of land - and that's it!

Every woman will know - sorry, fellers! - that cupboards get full-to-bursting, drawers get over-brimming, wardrobes get so packed that you can't get even one more hanger in! It's not rocket science - you can't get two pints of water into a one-pint jug!