Englishman in New York30 Jun 2005 03:09 pm

Swamped

As many as one in every 100 people in the UK is an illegal immigrant, according to a new government estimate.

Times Online. Rubbish!

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4 Responses to “Swamped”

  1. on 02 Jul 2005 at 8:18 am   Gavin

    I am not sure why you think this is rubbish? Is it the figures you dispute?

  2. on 02 Jul 2005 at 10:03 am   pdberger

    It is. Somehow, 1 in 100 seems a little high!

  3. on 05 Jul 2005 at 3:37 am   Gavin

    The UK is not a very big country, and if the number of illegals is right then so is 1 in 100. Interested to know what you thought would be gained from inflating the figures?

  4. on 05 Jul 2005 at 9:41 am   pdberger

    Hmmm. I’m no expert. But from what I have read…just before the election the government refused to “guess” at the number of illegal immigrants because they said it was too difficult to work out! (Obviously they don’t want it to look like there are loads of illegal immigrants in the UK just before an election.)

    Post election they decide they can work out how many illegal immigrants there are—just in time for the big push to get their I.D. card scheme moving again. Do you see a pattern emerging?

    Meanwhile, UK newspapers love a juicy top line, so they are happy to bandy around the 1 in 100 statistic…

    I recommend you watch an interesting documentary called Farmingville—about a small American town of 15,000 people just outside New York, which was “invaded” by 1,500 illegal Mexicans (ie 1 in 10 were illegal). It portrays an interesting microcosm of the problems of illegal immigration—both for local residents and the immigrants themselves.

    The main problem, as I see it, in the UK, Europe, and here, is that history endlessly repeats itself—with immigrants always being seen as the enemy. In actual fact, they are great for the economy!!!

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