Why would reducing future numbers of immigrants to levels of numbers of the 1990's be such a problem?

updates.oxfam.org.uk/c/1SdnPrNuiBGstxq7njWKF6imS

Caroline Lucas has an EDM about refugees. A link to ask May to attend the UN summit about refugees.

There is no lack of information about Europe available in the news media. It is in the papers daily and on online news sites like the BBC.

Topics covered extensively in recent weeks have included the banking crisis in Italy, the Austrian presidential elections that resulted in them nearly having a neo-fascist president. A recent Spanish court case that means that many British people who lost money on unbuilt houses and flats in 2008 can mow get their deposit money back from the banks funding the developers - and that is just a few stories that immediately spring to mind

Over the last year the reactions of different Eastern European countries to the refugee crisis has also been widely discussed as has the rise of right wing parties.

I do not seek out European news stories. They are in the mainstream news.

Many of our doctors and nurses do come from countries with an over supply. The Philippines trains far more nurses than it can employ that is why so many emmigrate. Their local government is happy with this as the remittances these immigrants send home helps to keep many families out of poverty and provides the government with badly needed foreign currency to pay for vital imports. The same applies to doctors and nurses from the Indian sub-continent. Some European countries also train more doctors and nurses than they require, although I am not sure why

I do worry about doctors and nurses coming from African countries as most of those countries have too few medical staff and need to keep all those they have.

The local unemployment in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries caused by the over supply of trained engineers has been noted as a contributor to the growth of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and to other extremist and violent Islamist organisations.

DH's grandfather walked here from Italy at the end of the 19th century as part of a government scheme to recruit labour. We've always had immigrants. My youngest grandson is a quarter Roma gypsy - does it matter?

I agree with Jess on everything except the reasoning behind the growth in birth rate. I tend to think that the English born and bred, of long english heritage are also having more children today than in the past because there is a lot of govt support for families (or has been until very recently) Whatever the reasoning, we need this generation of young for the reasons Jess has stated.

Spot on Jess

After the war the birth rate rose steadily and peaked in the 1960s Then it dropped drastically (the Pill was invented!). At the same time life expectancy continued the rise that had been going on for many decades. This means that there are an awful lot of us over 50 and a shortage of UK born under 50s. The over 50s are living longer, expecting to retire at the same age as their parents - and they have had small families. You can't have a situation where there are almost as many people retired, and needing pensions and lots of health care, as there are people in the workforce paying taxes and paying into occupational pension schemes. The upshot of this is the country needs immigrants and lots of them. To work in the economy and to work in healthcare. To pay for our pensions. The birth rate has started to go up again more recently, probably because some of our immigrant communities have more babies than those of white UK heritage. This is a good thing. Because if those of us in our 60s are around in our 90s we will need them to look after us.

Only 7 million people? That's the same as Scotland isn't it? So much space! I'm now going to look up stuff about Bulgaria - of which I know nothing. In fact, I'm ashamed to say I know nothing of any of the Eastern European countries. Except that no one wants to live there!

NfKdumpling Re other countries training people. I was living in Bulgaria when they went into the eu. This country have a population of just over 7 mil. people and a quarter of those are Roma gypsy. Can you imagine what happened when they were told you can now travel anywhere in Europe. It helped a lot of people but not the country.

Really Petra? Where does one go to find out what's going on in Europe? I suppose that's why I've never felt European, not even the weather gets reported here.

What I want to know is, what's happening in the countries where all these doctors and nurses are coming from? Are they just being trained just for export? If not who cares for the people in the countries of origin?

Has anyone seen what is happening in Austria right now There is an 18 mile tail back from the border with Hungary. They are stopping every car and lorry and checking it. They say they will protect their border.
They have passed a law that restricts the right of asylum and allows most claimants to be rejected at the border.
And people say that there is nothing we can do to stop asylum seekers. They are doing this right now in a land locked country in Europe.

And before anyone disputes this, it is well documented that many leading labour members have admitted that they got it wrong.

obieone Ah, but along came Tony Blair who had a grand plan.

In the 1990's and for that matter probably the 1980's, no one gave much thought to the levels of migration, as the system was working.

In the Welsh culture a close male friend is called uncle

Obieone I think you'll find that most Asian migrant workers come here because they have family or connections. Often in the Asian culture a close male friend is called, uncle. But the majority, from Eastern Europe are young single men and women.

Lots of them come because they already have relatives here, say many links.

A person doesnt normally come and/or go in isolation.

Other posts I will answer later

Degrees and work placement.

So many students choose degrees that they fancy are topical,or they see as an easy option, rather than researching the job market to find subjects that are in demand. Not all degrees are worth anything, a student only obtaining a 3rd, would have been better off working and progressing, rather than spending 3 years at uni.

However, any degree, demonstrates an ability to learn, that is important in the job market.

Many graduates expect to step into senior positions, but without experience they are not going to, they have to accept menial jobs with equivalent pay whilst they build up that experience.

The best programmer we employed, had an arts degree, nothing related in any way.

So it's not so much that the job is unattractive,more that it's cheaper to recruit from abroad.They save money to spend on what?
The elderly have already paid in for their care,still paying some of them.

Why the 1990s? Why not the 1890s? seems a bit of a random date.

What was the number of immigrants in the 1990s?

also there needs to be an increasing number of working people who pay ytax to support the increasing number of longer lasting pensions that are being/will be paid.

It's not as simple as people not wanting to train as nurses. Many who apply are turned down. I read recently that it costs £70,000 to train a nurse. Much cheaper to recruit already qualified nurses from overseas.
And I would provide a link to the source of this info, but typically I can't for the life of me remember where I read it. It might even have been here on GN

They do not all have relatives queuing up to come here, obieone.
Many of them come here on their own, meet someone British, marry and have children here.

I can't believe it's as simple as that.Somethings gone wrong in this country,we used to have enough candidates,nowadays young people want to do as little as possible.Weve got university courses for everything.Half of the students never find work suited to they're degrees.Thats why half of them never pay there loans back.They are brain washed by the TV.We need a good shake up and shuffle here.Stamp out the greed and corruption,not just here,but all over the world.As I'v said before,make the world a better fairer place,people wouldn't have to look to other countries then.