(Originally written in May 2016)
The Brexit camp
claim that the UK has lost control of
its borders and is being swamped by undesirable
immigrants. They say they only way
to stem the tide is to leave the EU. Anti-EU newspapers have helped to spread
these scares.
So what are
the true facts1?
Last year net migration into the UK was 333 000 (0.5% of the UK population). About half of this net migration was from other EU countries and half from the rest of the world.Most migrants to the UK come for work reasons. The UK workforce of 31 million includes 2 million EU citizens and 1 million other foreign nationals. Non-EU migrants require a work visa.
Many other temporary migrants are students, especially from
China, who support our universities
by paying tuition fees. There were also
42 000 asylum applications in 2015, and 12 000 were accepted, mostly
from the war-torn areas of the Middle East and South Asia.
The UK benefits from
migrant workers. They do jobs that
British people won’t or can’t do (picking fruit and vegetables, driving buses
in the big cities, staffing our National Health Service). They pay taxes, claim few benefits and are
generally law-abiding.
About 2 million EU citizens live in Britain and about 2 million UK citizens live, work or own
property in other EU states (especially Spain and France)².
The recent flow of refugees and economic migrants across the
Mediterranean to Greece and Italy is caused
not by the EU but by war, persecution and famine in Syria, Iraq,
Afghanistan and other unstable countries.
Very few of these people reach the UK, and in any case they have no
legal right to come here (unless we agree to accept them).
Our ports and airports are strictly policed, and apart from a tiny handful of illegal
stowaways, nobody gets in to the UK without showing a valid passport.
Although Turkey
applied to join the EU many years ago, there is no chance that it will be ready to join for many years – if ever. Each
existing EU country (including the UK) has a veto on its application, and
neither Greece nor Cyprus will agree unless Turkey withdraws its troops and recognises
the government of Cyprus (which it refuses to do).
So what would happen if the UK were to leave the EU?
Much would depend on any negotiations about continued access
to the EU single Market. As a condition
of access Norway and Switzerland have been required to permit the free movement
of workers – just as if they were a member state. It seems unlikely that the EU would allow the
UK continued access without imposing a similar condition. In this case migration to and from the EU would
stay exactly the same as now.
If, however, despite losing tariff-free access to the single
Market, it was decided to end the free movement of workers to and from the EU,
this could jeopardise the position of UK
citizens living and working in the EU – including people who have retired
to Spain and France. Similarly, farmers
and public services (like schools, hospitals and public transport) might have difficulty in recruiting staff.
The UK would lose its
veto over new countries (such as Turkey) joining the EU. So ironically,
leaving the EU would make it more likely
that one day we might have to accept Turkish immigrants.
Even if UK citizens were allowed to continue working in the
EU, they could lose some of their
existing rights – such as welfare benefits, free health care and pensions.
Migration from non-EU
countries would also be unaffected.
So we would still have to decide whether to accept foreign doctors,
computer software engineers, students, fruit pickers and bus drivers – or leave
the jobs unfilled.
Ignore the scaremongers
So the present level of migration is beneficial to the UK, and leaving the EU would not necessarily reduce this level. The Brexit camp are trying to exploit
people’s fears and use the migration issue to scare people into voting to leave
the EU. They are wrong and should be ignored.
© 2016 Robin Paice
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