M0nica
Why this contempt for economic migrants? All but very few come from desperately poor countries, where all that awaits them is unemployment and starvation.
Those prepared to take the risk of that difficult journey, often with two hazardous sea crossings, Mediterranean and Channel, are probably those with the highest courage resilience and determination in their countries and will be an asset to whichever country they end up in.
No, I am not arguing for open borders, and unchecked immigration. I am saying that we should respect all those who come over here, criminal element excepted. Ask yourselves whether you would have the courage to make the long uncertain journey they make, if it was the only way you could see to support your family and move them out of grinding poverty.
Are they any less admirable than all those Irish immigrants who fled Ireland in the 19th and 20th century for just the same reasons? I am descended from just such immigrants.
Ditto. Comments here about it always being men on these boats - as it ever was!
Passengers on board the Mayflower during its trans-Atlantic voyage of September 6 – November 9, 1620, the majority of them becoming the settlers of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. The Mayflower launched with 102 passengers, 74 male and 28 female, and a crew headed by Master Christopher Jones.
Seen the Kenneth Branagh film Belfast? The Dad travels to England to work, sending money home to his family. Read the books of Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes? - In 1941 his father left for England, supposedly to work in a wartime munitions factory, but the family never received the money he had promised to send, family left destitute.