You touch on real issues here, 100%.
That said, you then (seemingly) deny the issue of mass immigration altogether which has coincided with flatlining GDP per capita growth and decline in public service provision.
For years, the left has been able to trot out the slogan that the NHS and other public services have been ruthlessly and systematically underfunded by 14 years of Tory rule. The NHS’ budget has risen in line with population growth. Post-Brexit, the composition of migrants has changed from majority EU/EEA migrants to non-EEA migrants who, generally, are lower income and less economically productive. Therefore, welfare spending on ‘foreign born’ residents has rapidly increased (doubled in 3 years) and will only further increase from 2026/27 as the ‘Boriswave’ migrants begin to get indefinite leave to remain (i.e. equal access to benefits).
This is wildly oversimplified. Given the Tories restricted visa access for dependents of migrants, including students and the net migration figure halved from 900-odd thousand to 476k. Which Labour are happy to take the credit for. Half of all international students end up switching to social care visas - does that sound right to you? To anyone, irrespective of ideological persuasion, this is v strange that students would switch to this visa.
Drilling deeper, on health and care visas, the UK issued 146k visa (+ 203k dependents) which is much higher than the vacancies filled. It’s evident that this is being used to enter the wider UK labour market through the back door. It’s clearly been used as a Trojan horse for mass migration. Again, on social care, to raise a concrete example, there was a 1:10 ratio of Zimbabwean visas granted to healthcare/social workers and their dependents. This is not the intended purpose of that visa regime, it’s a ‘bug’ in the system.
Given the poor pay and working conditions in the sector, there will be high turnover and people will leave the jobs. However, if your visa you applied for, and was granted on the basis you’ll work in the health and care sector… if you break those conditions for entry, the penalty ought to be a notice to leave the country/deportation.
As a staunch leftist, I’m surprised you want to prioritise hiring healthcare professionals from abroad rather than raising pay and working conditions of British workers who still make up 77% of the workforce in social care.
To apply this to teaching and perhaps make this relevant to BSB… The treasury is justifying migration of healthcare/social carers because of shortages in the profession whilst simultaneously systematically defunded trainee places in the NHS for such workers. This is something my leftist friends have raised to me as a fundamental issue with the NHS too…
… Applying this to the teaching profession (imo, heavily underpaid and under appreciated), there is a growing shortage of teachers for teaching roles.
@Brighton Sky Blue, would it strike you as acceptable if the DoE/treasury cut funding for trainee teachers and essentially outsource this to migrants? Secondly, would this improve the working conditions and pay of the profession? Almost definitely not.
Ultimately, a rational person cannot be anti-immigration in its entirety. If the immigration system ensured the following:
1) Monitor net fiscal contributions of migrants i.e. a Public Benefit Test (PBT)
2) Restrict Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) to migrants who are a net positive to the treasury (i.e. pay more tax than receive in welfare/public services)
3) Restrict access to welfare and social housing to non-UK citizens
4) Mandate assessments of all working-age non-citizens receiving benefits or living in social housing to undergo PBT evaluation
5) Deport Non-Citizens that Have Been Persistent Fiscal Burdens
6) Ensure judicial resistance does not prevent implementation of the above
Disclaimer: this is summarised from
Douglas Carswell’s article in the Telegraph today but this covers stuff I’ve outlined and more on other threads.
If this was all implemented, immigration would cease to be an issue as was the case in Denmark, where a left wing party implemented reforms to beat off ‘far right’ challenge on this issue.
Personally, I’m sick of talking about immigration but its been the biggest single issue in the country for 2 decades and things will only get more and more toxic until we reform the system.