Immigration and Brexit

Having an arbitrary immigration target is nonsensical - it ignores the reason why we have immigration in the first place. We have been accepting some form of immigration (Windrush, for instance) a long time before we joined the EU. Some of this was about a sense of duty towards people we had previously colonised, but there was also a practical need: in the case of Windrush, to provide additional labour to help us recover from a devastating war. Because immigration is such a controversial subject, politicians have been loathe to explain why we still need it, whether from the EU or outside. The problem is demographic: the indigenous population has not increased in almost 2 decades, because of a low birthrate (common in developed countries), and this has resulted in an increased elderly population who are not contributing much to the Exchequer. To compensate, we need to "import" working-age people, both to increase tax revenues and to staff the health and care services. These people are not a burden on the health service, because they are generally young and fit, and actually staff it; however, they do put a strain on education and housing, the latter being something that successive governments have failed to address. Overall, though, research shows that immigrants are a benefit to the economy, which is why all governments throughout the recession have been keen not to interfere with current immigration levels for fear of damaging a weak economy (they clearly don't care about the Windrush generation as they have served their purpose!). There is also another myth which needs to be dispelled: we have always had the option to limit EU immigration. We are not members of the Schengen agreement so there is no free movement of people into the UK. What there is is free movement of labour, regulated by Directive 2004/38/EC; this limits immigration from Europe to those who have, or are seeking, a job - they have no right to stay if they have not found a job within 3 months. The point is, of course, that no UK Government has ever enforced this; that's the UK's fault, not the EU's. If you look at the Directive, it is abundantly clear that free movement of labour is not intended to be a burden on the receiving state. This was never mentioned during the referendum because Remainers would have had the embarrassment of explaining why we have never enforced this, and Leavers didn't want the electorate to know about it otherwise it would undermine their case. Despite the obvious social implications of immigration (which politicians have casually ignored), I don't think we would have been in this Brexit mess if there had been a little more honesty amongst our elected officials.