The amount and pace of migration to the UK is unprecedented

[danny la rouge]

Revealed: More than 1,000 unmarked graves discovered along EU migration routes

Bodies also piling up in morgues across continent as countries accused of failing to meet human rights obligations

www.theguardian.com

Skivers looking for an easy life, eh?

 

[PTK]

Revealed: More than 1,000 unmarked graves discovered along EU migration routes

Bodies also piling up in morgues across continent as countries accused of failing to meet human rights obligations

www.theguardian.com

Skivers looking for an easy life, eh?

The question I would ask of the government is why is it in favour of immigration, but hostile to asylum seeking?

 

[existentialist]

pretty sure I heard gove saying small boats were a distraction on R4 sometime this week (could have been another liar with a similar voice)

Ah, that'd be Gollum, then.

 

[brogdale]

The question I would ask of the government is why is it in favour of immigration, but hostile to asylum seeking?

The answer is, of course, is that the political wing of the neoliberal base relies on populist superstructure for electoral success.

 

[MickiQ]

The question I would ask of the government is why is it in favour of immigration, but hostile to asylum seeking?

I would have thought the announcements of the past few days would have given the impression it's not in favour of immigration either.

 

[andysays]

I would have thought the announcements of the past few days would have given the impression it's not in favour of immigration either.

The announcements are intended to give that impression, but it's clearly bullshit.

The British capitalist economy remains utterly dependant on continued immigration as a way of keeping employment costs (wages, training, etc) as low as possible.

 

[PTK]

The announcements are intended to give that impression, but it's clearly bullshit.

The British capitalist economy remains utterly dependant on continued immigration as a way of keeping employment costs (wages, training, etc) as low as possible.

I was shocked to discover recently that there is actually a regulation which was introduced a couple of years ago that allows employers in fields where there is a shortage of skilled labour to pay 20% less in wages to immigrant workers. This includes the NHS. So one healthworker could be on 20% less than her colleague.

 

[GarveyLives]

A 74 year-old grandmother and former proprietor of a traditional British fish and chip shop, who has lived in Britain for 42 years, has been ordered to leave the UK - after a Home Office email went into her junk folder:

French national living in Leicester for 42 years faces deportation

(Source: SWNS)

(Source: SWNS)

The Home Office said it needed more evidence that she had lived in the UK continuously for five years.

(Source: as stated in image)​

She can stay (after the Home Office was publicly shamed by the BBC):

(Source: as stated in image)​

Grandmother threatened with deportation after 42 years can stay

 

[Louis MacNeice]

I was shocked to discover recently that there is actually a regulation which was introduced a couple of years ago that allows employers in fields where there is a shortage of skilled labour to pay 20% less in wages to immigrant workers. This includes the NHS. So one healthworker could be on 20% less than her colleague.

Yep but that's market's for you.

Not at all cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[brogdale]

I was shocked to discover recently that there is actually a regulation which was introduced a couple of years ago that allows employers in fields where there is a shortage of skilled labour to pay 20% less in wages to immigrant workers. This includes the NHS. So one healthworker could be on 20% less than her colleague.

tbh I'm surprised to see anyone shocked at such a thing, after all they don't let migrants in out of the goodness of their hearts.

 

[PTK]

Yep but that's market's for you.

Not at all cheers - Louis MacNeice

Well, actually, it is state intervention to act against the market. If there is a shortage of skilled labour, then the markets would normally act to increase wages.

 

[PTK]

tbh I'm surprised to see anyone shocked at such a thing, after all they don't let migrants in out of the goodness of their hearts.

So, as you are so well-informed, perhaps you could tell us when this regulation came in, and if it received Parliamentary scrutiny.

 

[brogdale]

So, as you are so well-informed, perhaps you could tell us when this regulation came in, and if it received Parliamentary scrutiny.

Let's not do this; sorry if that came across as twatish...I'm on the ale.

 

[andysays]

I was shocked to discover recently that there is actually a regulation which was introduced a couple of years ago that allows employers in fields where there is a shortage of skilled labour to pay 20% less in wages to immigrant workers. This includes the NHS. So one healthworker could be on 20% less than her colleague.

And why is there a shortage of skilled labour?

Employers not prepared to pay to actually train their workers, especially when they can import them ready trained and pay them less than the going rate.

 

[brogdale]

I was shocked to discover recently that there is actually a regulation which was introduced a couple of years ago that allows employers in fields where there is a shortage of skilled labour to pay 20% less in wages to immigrant workers. This includes the NHS. So one healthworker could be on 20% less than her colleague.

OK, a more serious response.
AFAICS the "shortage occupation list" that allows employers of pay 20% "below the going rate for the job" dates back (unsurprisingly) to Blair. In 2007 the Government formed the 'Migration advisory committee' as a non-departmental body, associated with the HO, specifically to offer 'independent advice' on the shortage occupation list.

Of course this tool is open to the vagaries of ideological preference, real-politic and lobbying. For instance the graph below shows how Cameron's 'golden era' of sucking up to the PRC has waned and, under Johnson, this has been replaced by increased visa acceptance of workers from poorer countries inc. India, South Asian and sub-Sharan African countries (more willing to accept below minimum wages?). Whilst visas to workers from richer (OECD) nations have collapsed.

 

[Chz]

Speaking as a Canadian ex-pat, Britain being in the EU was definitely on the list of positives when I moved here and it would have been less enticing now because of Brexit. I might still have done it, but I'd have had a few more misgivings. So I'm not surprised to see the Anglosphere (and Japan?) decline like that.

 

[brogdale]

When looked at in absolute numbers, Johnson's 'throwing open the doors' to cheap labour looks like any 'take back control' voters might be disappointed by their man?



I suppose this is what has spooked the vermin backwoodsmen?

 

[pbsmooth]

how London has or hasn’t changed came up in conversation last night. an interesting gif on the subject off wiki. Certainly last 20 years has seen some shift.