Is immigration as big an issue as some politicians say?
Plus, you told us what you thought about Labour’s partnership with controversial asset manager BlackRock
Welcome to openDemocracy’s weekly reader comments round-up. We receive so many carefully considered messages about our work that it seems a shame to keep them to ourselves. Send us your thoughts for next week’s round-up by replying directly to any of our emails or commenting on our articles or Instagram posts.
These comments are edited for clarity, accuracy and length, and aren’t necessarily a reflection of openDemocracy's editorial position.
Re: British modern slavery victims suffer as a result of immigration crackdown
The elephant in the room that no politician will discuss or even mention is that most European countries, including the UK, have rapidly ageing populations and actually need more immigration, not less. Immigrants – if allowed to – work, pay taxes and contribute to society. Not allowing asylum seekers and refugees to work is insane.
If we want less immigration, then we must stop wars in other countries, stop arming wars in other countries, invest in those countries and create jobs so people don’t have to leave them for perfectly legitimate reasons. Politicians always bang on about “a grown-up conversation” about immigration and yet we never have it. –Patrick Neville
Poll: Do you feel immigration is as big an issue as some politicians say it is?
It is a big issue, but we and the government have to turn it into a less controversial, more positive big issue by:
- regularly publicising the skills offered by migrants,
- improving work, education and employment for UK natives,
- emphasising that many migrants come from countries wrecked by UK intervention and that others have to leave their home countries because the climate crisis has worsened their native habitat. –Roy Morris
Immigration is used to play on people’s fears of ‘the other’ and find simplistic explanations for deeper social problems and inequalities. This is happening not just in the UK, but across Europe, the US and in Asian and African countries too.
I am the granddaughter of immigrants who arrived in England early in the 20th century having fled the pogroms of eastern Europe. They brought with them their skills and worked hard to raise their families without government help, which they neither requested nor expected. As Jews, they were not welcomed by everyone; but they mostly overcame any difficulties, learned English, encouraged their children to work hard at school and were grateful to be given the chance to live in freedom from fear. What I cannot forgive is the aggressive, callous dehumanisation of migrants by members of successive governments. –Gill Cashdan
There is no quick fix to this but I am always encouraged by how prejudices fall away when people meet other people. Politics that delivers on real needs and inequalities has to be part of the answer, too, so we need to loosen what looks like an ever-tightening grip of billionaires on our press and social media. Thanks for asking. –Tim Hagyard
Today’s international (and intranational) migration is nothing compared to what we'll see in the coming decades. Instead of halting climate change, it's clear that our leaders intend to put up barriers to keep those affected out, effectively sentencing them to misery or death. –Ian Perkins
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Re: The BlackRock letters: inside Labour’s ‘close partnership’
I get your argument about Keir Starmer and BlackRock but I'd like to hear some alternative ideas about how to fund vital infrastructure projects. What a mess we're in. –Liz Jones
Surely the Labour Party should have learnt what a catastrophe Private Financial Initiatives were in building hospitals and schools in their last term in office. We got rich companies who built poor quality, extortionate long-term infrastructure and in many cases, the work wasn’t completed owing to bankruptcy –Alphcampaigner
Let’s not forget that it is not their money. It’s our money they use to manage pension funds. –@muellerbde86
Starmer has been put in place to destroy the economy, and to allow the globalisation of corporate cartels like BlackRock to steal and rip off our country. –@les_salter
Re: COP29 puts world on course for more extreme weather – and more deaths
Poorer nations grow much of the food for wealthier nations at cheap prices. Just as oil prices are set around the world, food-growing nations need to work together to control food supply and prices. Presently they are fragmented and divided, competing with one another, often going hungry themselves while richer nations take full advantage. –Peter Howe
Re: I’m disabled. Here’s why I am scared of the assisted dying bill
I really don't know enough about this to hold a strong opinion but what I can say is that a friend of mine was taken into Hereford Hospital a few weeks ago and told she had possibly a week to live and was certainly not going to leave the hospital alive. About 10 days later she was able to go back home, and she is still there now. Doctors really don't know and shouldn't be placed in this situation of having to predict the unpredictable. –Mary Scott
Read the other side to the argument: Why it’s time for the UK to introduce a new law to allow assisted dying
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