A
growing number of Scots believe that too many people are entering the
UK. In June 2018 found that 38 per cent of respondents believed that
immigration levels were too high. In the latest
survey carried out by YouGov, 45 per cent of respondents now say that
the level of immigration into Britain over the last few years has
been too high.
A
total of 37 per cent of those polled said they thought the level has
been “about right”, with 6% saying they thought the level was too
low, whilst 11% said they did not know whether the level was right or
not.
Research
suggests that 45 per cent of people who voted Yes in the 2014
Scottish independence referendum believe that immigration is too
high.
A
total of 77 per cent of Leave voters in the Brexit referendum said
they thought the level is too high, whilst Conservative voters are
most likely to be opposed to more immigration, with 65 per cent
stating that view.
The
Scottish Government has repeatedly warned that a more restrictive
migration system could send Scotland’s recent population growth
into reverse, with birth rates north of the Border falling to
historic lows. Last week, latest figures revealed Scotland’s
population hit 5.44 million. Migration was the main reason for the
increase with 20,900 more people coming than leaving, from both
overseas and the rest of the UK, over the year to mid-2018. Although
Scotland’s population increased by 0.2 per cent over the year, the
rate of population growth has slowed for the second year running.
This is due to a reduction in overall net migration.
People
do worry about the deterioration of their lives and many blame
newcomers for the reason. The Socialist Party has never been afraid
to take a minority position that is correct merely because it is
unpopular with the working class at present. It has never pandered to
the prejudices of the working class. Many politicians
have indulged in attacks on immigrants over the years
as it is necessary for them to have a scapegoat to blame for the ills
of the political system that we live under and the immigrant has
always served as such a scapegoat. You will not find a Socialist
Party member in that number.
We
hear it only too frequently; ‘I’m no racist but I’m
in favour of some sort of immigration control. Why give them houses when we haven’t enough houses for our
own people?Why spend money on schooling for them, when the
class-sizes are too big for our own children.?’ ‘Why let them use
our hospitals when the waiting times are already long enough...’
How often we hear this?
Even
some on the Left demand tighter border controls to prevent
‘our jobs’ being stolen by foreigners at a cost to the
disadvantaged unemployed.
We
know that the politicians who blame the immigrants for the shortages
in our society are exactly the same people who are responsible for
those shortages. We know that in capitalist society the numbers of
people coming into any country will be regulated by the number of
jobs available in that country, and we know that overcrowding in that
country – bad housing, hospital conditions and the like – are
caused not by the numbers of workers in that country but by a system
of society which plans its priorities and makes its decisions in the
interests of profit and a minority who benefit from that profit. So
we know that immigration controls cannot possibly assist the workers
already in that country. We also know that immigration controls
create all kinds of hardship for workers and their families who want
to come here.
As
soon as someone says ‘Keep them out’, as soon as he or she talks
about ‘Our own people’, they have committed discrimination
between one set of workers and another. Our people, cannot be defined
by their place of birth, the place where they live, the language they
talk or the colour of their skin. Our people are the plundered and
the dispossessed all over the world who speak a multitude of
languages and have many different coloured skins. The common factor
of their exploitation binds them together far closer than the trivial
differences of skin colour or language. It is the system of
capitalist production that produces unemployment, homelessness,
destitution and crumbling health services, not workers, be they
'indigenous' or 'foreign'.
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| WORLD SOCIALISM |
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