The short video clip below is from a BBC Panorama episode aired earlier this year in March – Immigration: Who Should We Let In?
The programme focused on concerns about immigration forming a key part of the Brexit referendum vote to leave the EU. Nick Robinson went around the UK to explore what immigration, if any, the public wanted.
The video clearly shows that most of the people interviewed were clear on one thing, they wanted immigration cut. The next question, who do you want to ‘let in’ proved not quite, but almost as easy for most to answer, and amounted to – people willing to do the jobs many UK nationals prefer not to.
The next question, who don’t you want to ‘come in’ proves to be the difficult one.
When pushed the answers become somewhat opaque, ‘we don’t want people coming in and sitting on their backsides, doing nothing’. Immigrant scroungers, who sit around doing nothing are then clearly identified as the ‘villains of the piece’. When the same people are then asked if they know of any such people in their area the reply is to the contrary, “no, most of them are hardworking”.
By the end, all of the people interviewed have no idea whatsoever of who they want to stop ‘coming in’.
The people interviewed do not come across as militant racists, they all seem to be your average woman/man in the street, a cross section of the Great British Public.
They all seem however to have a ‘mild’ inbuilt belief they are happy to articulate, they see immigration as a bad thing.
They also all clearly demonstrate that they have no idea, beyond the scroungers they cannot identify, who the immigrants they don’t want are. Their experience in fact by their own admission tells them that immigration, “most of them are hardworking”, is a good thing.
So, the question of did people know what they were voting for in the Brexit referendum maybe needs to be looked at again, in a different way.
The exception most people take or refer to when asked did the public know what they were voting for in the Brexit referendum is one of economic and political nous, did they fully understand the proposition intellectually.
Maybe Nick Robinson’s questions ask the same question is a different way, and the answers most certainly answer it differently too.
Prejudice and experience: all of the people interviewed demonstrate an in built prejudice, even if they don’t recognise it in themselves, towards immigration, they all want it cut and some want immigrants that are ‘let in’ monitored. But they are not sure why, or at least unable to say why, they seemingly don’t know why themselves.
Prejudice in all of its forms has become unacceptable in the UK to most people. Time has shown to most reasonably minded people that prejudice is not only morally wrong but limiting in many ways including economically and politically.
It was as recent as 1987 before the first black MP’s entered the House of Commons and less than 100 years ago in 1928 before women were given the same voting rights as men in the UK. These are examples of prejudice where common sense and decency ultimately prevailed. MP’s who are female and/or black clearly benefit us economically and politically.
The scroungers, if they do exist as referred to in the video clip, are a very small proportion of the UK population and are made up of people from nationalities as diverse as any other segment of our society.
These scroungers referred to in the video clip, would of course claim benefits to qualify as such before they spent the day sitting on their bottom’s doing nothing. If you take the raw measure of people who claim a benefit of any kind, 6.6 % are non UK nationals and 16.6 % are British nationals. We are not using Asterix’s with reference links, as searching Google for the same information sheds light on much more than we can publish. We encourage you to search if you are unsure or in doubt at all on the data quoted, it is enlightening.
The current immigration white paper the government is trying to get through parliament will cause great difficulties for many industries, by reducing the flow of immigrants to work in the UK. For hospitality we think it’s a disaster.
Whichever way you try and look at the effect on our industry, from the current immigration white paper, it will create difficulties that will damage our industry and very significantly.
The math behind this statement is simple.
The Government’s Office for National Statistics shows the number of job vacancies in the UK is at its highest since records began.
The Government’s Office for National Statistics in its most recent report on employment in the UK also shows – that employment is at its highest since comparable records began in 1971 and that unemployment is at its lowest since 1975.
So, a record low in numbers of people unemployed – a record high in numbers of people employed – and a record high in numbers of job vacancies available – all at the same time.
The record high in vacancies also coincides with a record fall in the number of EU nationals working in the UK, a continuing trend since the Brexit referendum.
Employment in the UK hospitality industry is currently highly reliant on EU nationals, making up between 12 -24% of its total workforce. Regions and sectors within the industry vary with waiters and waitresses in London for example making up 75% of the total workforce.
Most of this workforce are in positions earning less than the governments £30,000 threshold for new immigrants to gain entry into the UK in their proposed immigration white paper.
Many of this workforce are transient, some stay and develop careers in the UK, some return home with skills and experience to develop their careers and lives. In short, they need replacing regularly.
So, who’s going to replace them?
Last month the Office for National Statistics reported net migration from the EU A8 countries, which joined the bloc in 2004 and include Poland and the Czech Republic, was minus 14,000 in the year to June. Net migration of A2 citizens (Romania and Bulgaria) almost halved to 34,000 in the two years since the referendum. This is the lowest level since 2014, when these countries got full access to the UK labour market. Net migration of EU15 migrants – from the older EU member states such as Germany, Italy and Spain – fell from 84,000 in the year to June 2016 to 47,000 in the same period this year.
The number of EU migrants working in the UK has fallen by the biggest number since records began. There were 2.25 million EU nationals in employment in Britain between July and September 2018, some 132,000 fewer than the same period the previous year. That represents the largest annual fall since comparable statistics began in 1997. The almost six per cent overall fall has been driven by a major reduction of 15 per cent in the number of workers from Eastern European countries.
With any coherent Brexit plan still to be seen, continued political and economic uncertainty is sure to accelerate the decrease in EU migrants available for work in the UK.
Will British nationals already employed move to employment in hospitality?
Will schools and universities as well as providers of training and apprenticeships multiply the numbers of British nationals in education entering the hospitality industry?
With the hospitality industry already facing acute people and skills shortages, filling the gaps through British nationals in education currently is simply not possible. Long term education and job alignment in hospitality is a long term strategy that needs to be set in place but is not a short term solution.
New Statesman America reports on Brexodus: how EU migrants are already shunning the UKGeorge Eaton, deputy editor of the New Statesman America wrote recently in an article entitled – The Brexodus: how EU migrants are already shunning the UK. “In recent history, there has only been one reliable means of reducing net migration: a recession. Newcomers from the EU halved after the 2008 crash. But now, even as the economy continues to grow and employment remains at a record high of 75.6 per cent, Europeans are already shunning the UK. Both the government and voters may only miss them when they’re gone.”
Waiter, where’s my waiter?
The BBC’s full Panorama programme – Immigration: Who Should We Let In? – can be watched in full on BBC iPlayer.