Jan 5, 2024 08:08 PM
(This post was last modified: Jan 5, 2024 08:17 PM by C C.)
https://westcountryvoices.co.uk/without-...e-the-nhs/
EXCERPTS: Our NHS would collapse without migrants.
Almost 20 per cent of the staff in NHS England are from overseas. Out of 1.5 million NHS staff in England, around 265,000 reported a non-British nationality as of June 2023. That’s 45,000 more than the previous year.
What’s more, since Brexit, data indicates that the proportion of EU citizens working for the NHS has declined and tapered off, whilst the proportion of Asian migrants working for the NHS has rapidly increased. Data collated by the House of Commons Library shows that from 2009, the percentage of citizens known to come from EU countries working in the NHS rose strongly, until around the time of the Brexit vote, when their percentages decreased. Then, from around 2016 onwards following the EU referendum, the percentage of NHS staff known to come from Asian countries dramatically increased.
How did this happen? Wasn’t Brexit supposed to reduce the number of migrants? Here’s my interpretation. A key reason given by voters for choosing ‘Leave’ in the referendum was their feeling that we had too many EU migrants here.
[...] The Conservatives’ 2015 manifesto also pledged to bring down annual net migration to the “tens of thousands” [from 172,000 in 2015] and promised to “reduce the incentive for EU migrants to settle in the UK.”
That hardly represented a ringing endorsement of EU membership and how EU migrants here were needed, and mostly in gainful employment in the UK. With relatively low unemployment, high employment and record high unfilled vacancies, this meant that the numbers EU migrants here were at about the right level; maybe not enough, but not too many.
Despite that, Mr Cameron requested from the EU a ‘brake’ on EU migrants, by cutting their in-work benefits. His request was granted, but what wasn’t widely reported is that almost 90 per cent of EU migrants here didn’t even take such benefits.
[...] Instead of being a burden, most EU migrants here were employed and making a significant NET contribution to government coffers. Relatively few were taking benefits.
[...] Labour’s front bench also pandered to the view that the UK had too many EU migrants... Labour did refer to the “common good” provided by migrants and the “contribution” they make to the country... Nor did Labour challenge the unfounded claim that migrants put a strain on public services by pointing out that migrants made a positive net contribution to the cost of public services....
[...] In addition to the Conservatives and Labour stoking fears about immigration, most of the country’s newspapers also inundated the public with a daily deluge against immigrants in the UK (no matter whether they were EU-migrants, non-EU migrants, asylum-seekers or so-called ‘illegal migrants’ – to much of the press, they were all the same.)
[...] So, with anti-immigration sentiments running high and echoed by the British press and the two main parties, Brexit happened.
As a direct result, it’s more difficult for EU citizens to stay or come here; many EU citizens no longer feel welcome here; many have left their employment, in the NHS and other key organisations; many have departed the country. Since Brexit and the pandemic, net migration of EU citizens to the UK has fallen by almost 70% compared to its 2016 peak.
[...] But it’s no big deal, is it, because we didn’t need those EU migrants, did we?
Actually, yes, we did. Who was going to fill those jobs, in the NHS and thousands of companies and organisations across the country, vacated by EU citizens who had made Britain their home?
British workers? Nope. We simply don’t have enough British workers to do all the jobs in Britain. Today, Britain has around 6 million foreign-born workers in gainful employment, and record numbers of unfilled job vacancies. We need migrants, and with a chronic shortage of workers, we actually need more.
[...] So, the Conservative government is quietly issuing visas to hundreds of thousands of migrants from other continents to work here, to help replace those EU citizens who left, and to ease record numbers of unfilled job vacancies following Brexit and the pandemic.
And yet, at the same time, the government is loudly pretending to the British public that we don’t need migrants, that we have too many. The reality is different. The UK economy cannot function without sufficient workers... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Our NHS would collapse without migrants.
Almost 20 per cent of the staff in NHS England are from overseas. Out of 1.5 million NHS staff in England, around 265,000 reported a non-British nationality as of June 2023. That’s 45,000 more than the previous year.
What’s more, since Brexit, data indicates that the proportion of EU citizens working for the NHS has declined and tapered off, whilst the proportion of Asian migrants working for the NHS has rapidly increased. Data collated by the House of Commons Library shows that from 2009, the percentage of citizens known to come from EU countries working in the NHS rose strongly, until around the time of the Brexit vote, when their percentages decreased. Then, from around 2016 onwards following the EU referendum, the percentage of NHS staff known to come from Asian countries dramatically increased.
How did this happen? Wasn’t Brexit supposed to reduce the number of migrants? Here’s my interpretation. A key reason given by voters for choosing ‘Leave’ in the referendum was their feeling that we had too many EU migrants here.
[...] The Conservatives’ 2015 manifesto also pledged to bring down annual net migration to the “tens of thousands” [from 172,000 in 2015] and promised to “reduce the incentive for EU migrants to settle in the UK.”
That hardly represented a ringing endorsement of EU membership and how EU migrants here were needed, and mostly in gainful employment in the UK. With relatively low unemployment, high employment and record high unfilled vacancies, this meant that the numbers EU migrants here were at about the right level; maybe not enough, but not too many.
Despite that, Mr Cameron requested from the EU a ‘brake’ on EU migrants, by cutting their in-work benefits. His request was granted, but what wasn’t widely reported is that almost 90 per cent of EU migrants here didn’t even take such benefits.
[...] Instead of being a burden, most EU migrants here were employed and making a significant NET contribution to government coffers. Relatively few were taking benefits.
[...] Labour’s front bench also pandered to the view that the UK had too many EU migrants... Labour did refer to the “common good” provided by migrants and the “contribution” they make to the country... Nor did Labour challenge the unfounded claim that migrants put a strain on public services by pointing out that migrants made a positive net contribution to the cost of public services....
[...] In addition to the Conservatives and Labour stoking fears about immigration, most of the country’s newspapers also inundated the public with a daily deluge against immigrants in the UK (no matter whether they were EU-migrants, non-EU migrants, asylum-seekers or so-called ‘illegal migrants’ – to much of the press, they were all the same.)
[...] So, with anti-immigration sentiments running high and echoed by the British press and the two main parties, Brexit happened.
As a direct result, it’s more difficult for EU citizens to stay or come here; many EU citizens no longer feel welcome here; many have left their employment, in the NHS and other key organisations; many have departed the country. Since Brexit and the pandemic, net migration of EU citizens to the UK has fallen by almost 70% compared to its 2016 peak.
[...] But it’s no big deal, is it, because we didn’t need those EU migrants, did we?
Actually, yes, we did. Who was going to fill those jobs, in the NHS and thousands of companies and organisations across the country, vacated by EU citizens who had made Britain their home?
British workers? Nope. We simply don’t have enough British workers to do all the jobs in Britain. Today, Britain has around 6 million foreign-born workers in gainful employment, and record numbers of unfilled job vacancies. We need migrants, and with a chronic shortage of workers, we actually need more.
[...] So, the Conservative government is quietly issuing visas to hundreds of thousands of migrants from other continents to work here, to help replace those EU citizens who left, and to ease record numbers of unfilled job vacancies following Brexit and the pandemic.
And yet, at the same time, the government is loudly pretending to the British public that we don’t need migrants, that we have too many. The reality is different. The UK economy cannot function without sufficient workers... (MORE - missing details)
