Friday 12 December 2014

Immigrants Actually Help Our Ecomomies!

Back in 2008 I remember sitting up late to watch the American Election results. I wasn't usually interested in American politics' but that year was different. For the first time, in my life time a black man had the overwhelming potential to become president of the 'free world'. When it became clear that Barack Obama would indeed be the next president of America, I naively thought, wow the world is really ready for change and that for once we were moving in the right direction. But all you have to do is read the newspapers today to realise that unfortunately racism is still alive and rampaging through our society.

Racism isn't just happening in America, it's happening right on your own doorstep! Here in Ireland and the UK, there has been a dramatic rise in hate related crimes. With certain politicians filling people's heads with nonsense that immigrants are to blame for our current economic situation. They are scapegoating immigrants for problems caused by the banks and the governments.

What a lot of Irish and British people fail to remember is that many of our people have flocked to countries such as Australia and America throughout history in an attempt to make a better life for themselves. Is it not time we returned the favour to the world, and allowed others to come here for a better life? Shouldn't we be proud that people from around the world want to make a life for themselves here?

There are those that say that immigrants are taking our jobs, while others will contradict this and say that they are taking advantage of our benefit systems. So it seems no matter what they do, immigrants will be viewed in a negative manner by some people. A financial study in the UK between 2001 - 2011 actually show's that EU migrants and Non EU migrants actually stimulated the economy much more than UK natives did. There are also similar reports for Ireland.
 
 
The figures speak for themselves, having foreign nationals here is actually very good for our fragile economies. Maybe our politicians  should be informing people of these facts, but then that would put the responsibility of our current economic and social problems at there feet. Something they would rather avoid.
 
 
Please share this blog post, so that other people can recognise just how important it is to our economies to have immigrants in our countries.
 
 
 
 
B~