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Over 2m foreigners are now working in Britain


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Over 2m foreigners are now working in Britain

By Christopher Hope, Home Affairs Correspondent

Last Updated: 2:35am GMT 11/02/2008

The number of foreign workers in the UK has risen above two million for the first time, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

There has been a 75 per cent increase in workers from abroad in the last six years, while the number of British employees has dropped by half a million, new figures show.

The rise has followed an influx of hundreds of thousands of Eastern Europeans into the UK since 2004. At the same time the number of British people claiming incapacity benefit has soared while there has also been an increase in people emigrating.

Official figures from the Labour Force Survey show that the number of foreigners in the UK workforce increased between 2001 and last year by 864,000 - to just over two million people. This is equivalent to one in 14 of a total working population.

The Conservatives last night said the disclosure undermined Gordon Brown's vow to create jobs for British workers.

The figures were contained in a letter from Karen Dunnell, the national statistician and director of the Office for National Statistics, to the Conservative MP James Clappison, a member of the Commons home affairs select committee.

He said: "Ministers are really out of touch with what is happening in the jobs market.

"The Government has overseen a significant increase in the employment of foreign citizens but have had much less success in creating jobs for British citizens."

Full story, source: The Telegraph

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Its not the ones who are working that are the problem, as we have 2 million sat on their lazy backsides picking up benefits we need them.

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British people are being forced out by the migrants, its plain to see, if you are paying the minimum wage, of £5.50 an hour a migrant will think hes in heaven on that wage, yet the British person wont take the job, and not because hes lazy its because he lives in Britain full time where the cost of living is high and going even higher and cant afford to be employed on £5.50 an hour because he'd be worse off, but the migrant doesnt mind because hes earning the equivalent of a months wages in one week here in the UK and hes living in a one bed room flat with 6 other migrants, who are sending half their money back home where the cost of living is much lower than the UK so they can afford to take the £5.50 an hour wage, so whos going to get employed,

i always come down hard on people unemployed but im changing my mind, because lets face it,

£5.50 an hour 40 hours a week = £220 a week, and out of that you have to pay full everything, Rent, Council tax, water, Gas, Leccy bills, full health care IE eye tests, dental bills, tax, national insurance, after paying for all that you'd be left with about £50 to spend on yourself, imagine that working 40 hours a week for £50 after you've paid all the bills, ****ing hell, no wonder the Brits are going on benefit where you get £120 a week and everything paid for ya,

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i always come down hard on people unemployed but im changing my mind, because lets face it,

£5.50 an hour 40 hours a week = £220 a week, and out of that you have to pay full everything, Rent, Council tax, water, Gas, Leccy bills, full health care IE eye tests, dental bills, tax, national insurance, after paying for all that you'd be left with about £50 to spend on yourself, imagine that working 40 hours a week for £50 after you've paid all the bills, ****ing hell, no wonder the Brits are going on benefit where you get £120 a week and everything paid for ya,

Aye, you're right Steve, there is no incentive. Stick a bit of cash in hand on that 120 as well. Still, while this is the system we need the foreign workers to get the jobs done.

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Aye, you're right Steve, there is no incentive. Stick a bit of cash in hand on that 120 as well. Still, while this is the system we need the foreign workers to get the jobs done.

we need a system that works by the more you put in the more you get back out, like if you work you can buy petrol cheaper or road tax is cheaper, something along them lines. applying to all sorts of things,

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"State Benefit Lifestyle" is a problem, but the immigration tsunami is also DIRECTLY causing unemployment amongst native Brits.

As an illustration, there was a story some months ago about a major taxi company in Portsmouth (or possibly Plymouth - I'll have to dig it up again). They had opened a training centre in Poland to teach Poles how to operate a txi in Portsmouth , with the offer of jobs for succesful "students". It seems obvious that they would not put THAT much investment in if they subsequently intended to offer jobs to non-Poles. They are training, and importing, a workforce en-bloc, and freezing out local citizens. (unless they are willing to accept national minimum wage).

Where are the trades unions in all this ? The answer appears to be: lapping it up - cos they can get loads of new temporary migrant members and hence new subscriptions.

This whole "we need foreign workers to do the job Brits are too lazy to do" is just a cynical excercise to drive down wages. Thus far, the trades unions leaders are cooperating with it in order to feather their own nests, but at the expense of their (current) members.

Our Nation is being deracinated on the alter of corporate profits.

Meow Purr.

Edited by ships-cat
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Even on minimum wage you still get housing benefit and council tax relief!!!

I take the point about imported east european labour, happy to live in conditions that we would find unacceptable, but I have also worked with Poles in the aerospace industry who earn 35 pounds + an hour and contribute to our tax system in a big way.

They cannot all be tarred with the same brush.

Yes.... brits are lazy for the most part, get them off their backsides and at least "pretending" to have some semblance of decent living standards.

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Where are the trades unions in all this ? The answer appears to be: lapping it up - cos they can get loads of new temporary migrant members and hence new subscriptions.

Meow Purr.

Since Dame Maggie chopped King Arthur's head they have left Britain... and as I recall at the time everybody was cheering.

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Since Dame Maggie chopped King Arthur's head they have left Britain... and as I recall at the time everybody was cheering.

And everybody is still cheering..... standard of living, highest ever, UK now 5th biggest economy in the world, immigration a big problem, knowledge based people have gone overseas.... but on the whole, thank god for the loss of Union interference

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Even on minimum wage you still get housing benefit and council tax relief!!!

I take the point about imported east european labour, happy to live in conditions that we would find unacceptable, but I have also worked with Poles in the aerospace industry who earn 35 pounds + an hour and contribute to our tax system in a big way.

They cannot all be tarred with the same brush.

Yes.... brits are lazy for the most part, get them off their backsides and at least "pretending" to have some semblance of decent living standards.

Keith,

just worked it out on online, a single person earning £220 a week, working over 30+ hours a week, paying £800 a year council tax, and £80 a week rent gets no help what so ever with anything,

am not knocking the migrant workers, its the system thats ****ed up, i guess every nation has its lazy arses, but do you think the closing down of industry in the UK in the 70's 80's has caused our current problems, because we've had a generation growing up in a household were both parents have been on benefits?

we need a system thats more fairer to the people who pay into it, Keith i bet you've paid into the system and got very little back in return,

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And everybody is still cheering..... standard of living, highest ever, UK now 5th biggest economy in the world, immigration a big problem, knowledge based people have gone overseas.... but on the whole, thank god for the loss of Union interference

The problem was not the Unions, it was too many unions. Before Dame Maggie used the chopping block a common joke was: Two Brits met at work....

If it wasn't the Mechanics it was the electricians, and if not the electricians the drivers who were on strike.

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So I am getting the impression that people from the UK sure whine a lot... dont seem to really do anything about it either, aside from typing furiously.

Jeez if a Canadian whined that much to me I'd be sure to slap some man back into him...

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So I am getting the impression that people from the UK sure whine a lot... dont seem to really do anything about it either, aside from typing furiously.

Jeez if a Canadian whined that much to me I'd be sure to slap some man back into him...

how can we do anything about it, we vote the ****ers out of government they are replaced by carbon copies,

and whats this last line, you'd slap, SLAP, some man back into him you tart, give him a punch, :o

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Ya I never voted in my life... wouldnt think of legitimizing the little scam they got going.

You gotta slap some man into em first or it would be considered punching a lady ;)

OK so what you gotta do is desire the downfall of the government and the collapse of the country, it cant be fixed without hitting rock bottom first anyways, then everyday when you read these articles about the daily corruption of the government and the mismanagement of the country you are actually reading good news :tu:

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just worked it out on online, a single person earning £220 a week, working over 30+ hours a week, paying £800 a year council tax, and £80 a week rent gets no help what so ever with anything,

When i trained as an electrician it was home study and away at the end of each segment for your training days, that meant i had to leave the job i was in and take something more flexible. I worked 12 hr shifts, 4 on - 4 off, i took home between £210.00 and £230.00 a week, i had a mortgage lower then most peoples rent (£250 a month), just to meet our basic bills with minimal food shopping and no extras we were £100 a month short every month. I contacted the DSS and other departments but was offered no help what-so-ever. The only way they could help me was if i quit my job, waited a 12 weeks and then signed on. The system doesn't help, it makes it harder.

am not knocking the migrant workers, its the system thats ****ed up, i guess every nation has its lazy arses, but do you think the closing down of industry in the UK in the 70's 80's has caused our current problems, because we've had a generation growing up in a household were both parents have been on benefits?

Well that's the problem, i've worked with a few polish sparky's in the last couple of years, they do a good job. But you've got people on the dole who could do it too if they had the training, you don't get it though, it cost me 8k to train as a sparky. The last time i checked we had a shortage of 16,000 sparkies and roughly the same amount of plumbers, why don't the government pay for peoples training instead of paying them benefits for year after year. I would save the government money in the long run. It'S a crazy and s*** system.

Edited by Username Deleted
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But you've got people on the dole who could do it too if they had the training, you don't get it though, it cost me 8k to train as a sparky. The last time i checked we had a shortage of 16,000 sparkies and roughly the same amount of plumbers, why don't the government pay for peoples training instead of paying them benefits for year after year. I would save the government money in the long run. It'S a crazy and s*** system.

It is really not cheaper to pay rock 'n roll than to retrain people. In fact, it is a known fact that people will probably need to be trained in various areas to insure life long employment. It is just the politicians who have "more important" things to do than to worry about constituents. And if they are unemployed they are constituents of somebody else anyway.

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It is really not cheaper to pay rock 'n roll than to retrain people. In fact, it is a known fact that people will probably need to be trained in various areas to insure life long employment. It is just the politicians who have "more important" things to do than to worry about constituents. And if they are unemployed they are constituents of somebody else anyway.

If your long term unemployed you get your rent, dole money, council tax all sorted. The fella next door to me is younger then me and has been unemployed for over 3 years, his flat and most of his bills are sorted out for him by the state. The 3 years of benefits he's had would have trained him in some trade or another, when trained he'd be on good enough money to pay for all his own future training and retraining to fall in line with Government Standards etc.

It just seemed absurd to me that no long term thought is put into the benefits system. then again i suppose by the time the s*** hits the fan their out of office anyway so it's someone else's problem.

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It just seemed absurd to me that no long term thought is put into the benefits system. then again i suppose by the time the s*** hits the fan their out of office anyway so it's someone else's problem.

Politicians only think in four year terms (those capable of thinking, that is). Long term problems get ignored until they bite their lower extremities.

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Well that's the problem, i've worked with a few polish sparky's in the last couple of years, they do a good job. But you've got people on the dole who could do it too if they had the training, you don't get it though, it cost me 8k to train as a sparky. The last time i checked we had a shortage of 16,000 sparkies and roughly the same amount of plumbers, why don't the government pay for peoples training instead of paying them benefits for year after year. I would save the government money in the long run. It'S a crazy and s*** system.

user,

a cousin of mine was looking to become a plumber, and this is what happened, he contacted that learndirect, got information pack, application form, filled it all in sent it off, 3 weeks later, got a letter and an appointment to go along to a college for some sort of test, he went along done the test, 4 days later got a reply saying he'd past the test and can learn to become a plumber,

but theres just one catch, they had to find there own placement, so he wrote off to all the plumbers in the local yellow pages trying to find a placement he must have sent about 40 letters off and got about 10 replies all saying no. so what he needed was a placement for 4 days a week and 1 day release at college, the college cant train "inhouse" because it would cost too much, so in the end i ended up asking around the lads to find someone who would take him on, lucky enough, a friend of a friend took him on, he completed the course or what ever you have to pass and now works for the local council,

but its shouldnt be a case of, its not what you know, but who you know, there was 400 lads applying for the course and only 15 got placements which meant just 15 lads could continue with the course, its a great waste of talented youngmen, who are keen as mustard and ready to join the work force,

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user,

a cousin of mine was looking to become a plumber, and this is what happened, he contacted that learndirect, got information pack, application form, filled it all in sent it off, 3 weeks later, got a letter and an appointment to go along to a college for some sort of test, he went along done the test, 4 days later got a reply saying he'd past the test and can learn to become a plumber,

but theres just one catch, they had to find there own placement, so he wrote off to all the plumbers in the local yellow pages trying to find a placement he must have sent about 40 letters off and got about 10 replies all saying no. so what he needed was a placement for 4 days a week and 1 day release at college, the college cant train "inhouse" because it would cost too much, so in the end i ended up asking around the lads to find someone who would take him on, lucky enough, a friend of a friend took him on, he completed the course or what ever you have to pass and now works for the local council,

but its shouldnt be a case of, its not what you know, but who you know, there was 400 lads applying for the course and only 15 got placements which meant just 15 lads could continue with the course, its a great waste of talented youngmen, who are keen as mustard and ready to join the work force,

I know, i've seen it myself with a young lad working where i work. When your in your late twenties early thirties you don't even get offers of college courses, your on your own when it comes to funding training etc. I got my 16th Edition and Part p about 2 yrs back. My other half sent off forty letters to firms in the latter part of my course explaining that all my course was paid for and i just needed a firm to give me a chance so i could build up my portfolio for assessments and then work for them after i'm fully qualified. Out of the forty letters i had 2 replies, thankfully i got offered a position with one company.

Your right it shouldn't be the case because what you've got in this country at the moment is a vast sway of teenagers drifting into nothing because the opportunity is denied from the offset, as you point out, and another generation of mid-twenty to early thirty yr old fit and able men drifting between dead end jobs and the dole every few months.

The systems that sad it's pathetic.

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Poland (i'll use poland i.e., because the majority of migrant workers are coming from there) has just as many layabouts and drunks as the UK, it just so happens only the ones with get-up-and-go come here to work, bringing migrant workers in isn't the answer, if everyone after three months unemployed had to report at 8:00 every morning to do community work for 40 hours a week before being entitled to their benefit, the amount of people unemployed would drop dramatically.

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Just a thought, but shouldn't we be blaming the companies which offer such an awful wage no 'native' will accept it, rather than the migrants who are desperate enough to take it?

Also, I'm not sure what the connection is between the number of immigrant workers and the number of people claiming incap benefit?

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