The impact of British immigration on British society (racial discrimination, cultural differences)

On October 16, 2007, the British Home Office, the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions jointly released the report "The Economic and Financial Impact of Immigration", triggering an unprecedented debate between the British government and opposition parties on the immigration issue. debate.

There are two completely different voices on immigration policy

Among the EU member states, the UK has the most relaxed immigration policy. Since the New Labor government came to power in 1997, the British economy has continued to grow and created a large number of job opportunities. The British government has always adopted an "open door" attitude towards immigration. The loose immigration policy not only attracts immigrants from Britain’s traditional colonial countries and Asian countries, but also directly promotes the free flow of labor among EU member states. Especially after the EU's eastward enlargement in 2004, new immigrants from newly admitted countries such as Romania and Poland entered the British labor market, forming a new wave of immigrants.

In this unprecedented debate on immigration, the views of all walks of life in the British society have shifted from the original divergence of opinions to the emergence of two distinct voices. One group fully affirms the contribution of immigrants to the British economy; the other group emphasizes more the negative impact immigrants bring to society. The above-mentioned report jointly issued by the British Home Office and other ministries is more inclined to the former view. The report pointed out that this new wave of immigration has many characteristics such as large scale, long duration, and positive economic impact.

First, according to preliminary estimates, the total number of new immigrants in the UK since 1997 has exceeded 1.1 million, accounting for approximately 7% to 8% of the total population of the UK. If we take 2004 as a line, the number of new immigrants each year was 145,000 before, and has since risen to around 190,000. It is predicted that after 2007, the average annual number of new immigrants in the UK will reach 500,000.

Second, the report positively evaluates the positive contribution of new immigrants to the British economy. Compared with British workers, new immigrants are better than local workers in terms of skills, integrity and hard work, and have made greater contributions to the development of the British economy. In 2004 and 2005, 17% of the UK's total economic growth was generated by immigrants. In addition, the survey shows that from 1999 to 2000, British immigrants paid 31.2 billion pounds in taxes and spent 28.8 billion pounds on public services and subsidies, making a net contribution to the British economy; moreover, this amount of money from immigrants Contribution also shows an increasing trend year by year.

Third, new immigrants work in industries with relatively low social status and have long been discriminated against by "locals", thus partially alleviating the long-standing inequality in labor supply and demand in these industries. In 2006, the results of the survey on the distribution of immigrant industries showed that in the manufacturing, construction, retail, hotel and catering, and transportation industries, the employment ratios of immigrants from newly admitted Eastern European countries to British natives were 21%, 13%, and 14% respectively. than 9%, 24% to 19% and 10% to 7%. Sample surveys of employers also show that in some industries, compared with British natives, immigrants are more honest, more diligent, have relatively lower dismissal costs, and have lower wage requirements, so employers are more willing to hire immigrants.