28 August, 2008
Benefits of immigration
If, as Danny Sriskandarajah and all the usual suspects would have us believe, immigrants are contributing in financial terms to the UK economy, why is it that every third "ethnic" shop I see is offering money transfer services? OK, I exaggerate the numbers, but really not that much. Money transfer services, audited and hawala, are everywhere. Just how much of our GDP is disappearing overseas through this channel?
Effectively what we have here is onshore offshoring. Instead of paying money to overseas businessmen to buy and import goods off them, we are importing people to do "direct" work here. We are paying their infrastructure costs, treating their ailments and attempting to educate their children, but their profits are disappearing overseas.
And how much does what little spending that these immigrants do actually benefit the indigenous community. When you last saw your local Chinese takeaway/chippy being redecorated or refurbed, what was the ethnicity of the people doing the work, I wonder.
Sorry guys, I don't buy it.
Effectively what we have here is onshore offshoring. Instead of paying money to overseas businessmen to buy and import goods off them, we are importing people to do "direct" work here. We are paying their infrastructure costs, treating their ailments and attempting to educate their children, but their profits are disappearing overseas.
And how much does what little spending that these immigrants do actually benefit the indigenous community. When you last saw your local Chinese takeaway/chippy being redecorated or refurbed, what was the ethnicity of the people doing the work, I wonder.
Sorry guys, I don't buy it.
# posted by Edwin Greenwood @ 13:32 
