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That's by design, border control was a selling point of Brexit, as brexiters saw only the bad side of immigration. Which to be fair, is no seamless nor without
by BiteCode_dev 5y ago
That's by design, border control was a selling point of Brexit, as brexiters saw only the bad side of immigration. Which to be fair, is no seamless nor without challenges or cost.
I suppose the rational is:
• Diminish the friction that multi-culturalism and diversity integration can bring.
• Free jobs for the local population.
• Having to share less of lands, resources, and infrastructures.
And I see the point, but it also fails to take in consideration that:
• The UK needs the import/export flow it was used to pre-brexit to keep their current life style. They don't produce much good internally, and they need to export their service. Brexit added huge barriers to that, not just for people.
• The current British population doesn't seem very motivated to take back the jobs they delegated to immigration.
• Even if it were, it can't be instant, since that requires training an entire workforce and sometimes even require permits or certification. Trucks, bus and cabs come to mind. And the inertia will do some damage. The supply chain is already seen glitches, although not as much as I would have expected. They are surprisingly pretty resilient.
• The Northern Ireland situation is a ticking bomb. Yeah, immigrates are not just brown people. People have a short memory though, so I suppose IRA stands for nothing nowadays. They may get a nasty reminder that ignored history is doomed to be repeated.
• Scotland nationalism has been exacerbated since they were pretty anti-brexit. Also, as an immigrant, scots were pretty welcoming, they need people there.
• Big players that needed to stay in Europe are sometimes moving to France or Ireland. So the promised jobs have to take that in consideration.
• The UK has an aging population, with a 0.53% growth rate, and that was when compensated by immigration.
• The UK education system sucks. People think Oxford and Cambridge, but the reality is more Leeds Metropolitan. I've studied there, and it's not going to be easy to find qualified workers only in the island.
• The UK managed to negotiate a very privileged deal inside the UE. It had most of the advantages, and way less of the down sides that other members. This deal is dead now, they have the worst of all worlds. So even if they get some benefits, the cost may be huge.
• France and the UK never really liked each other. The UE brings peace. But now, all bets are off. Also, no more bonding program such as Erasmus to bring future generation together. And good luck to make you BSC valued outside of the UK. And I guarantee the already little patience we had for the retired brits in the South of France that never try to learn proper France will not hold forever now that we are not bros.
• All that in the middle of covid. Not their fault, but damn, that's a terrible timing.
- bb123 5y agoA couple of counterpoints (offered in good faith): > - the UK needs the import/export flow it was used to pre-brexit to keep their current life style. That is about goods, which are totally separate to immigration. > - the current british population doesn't seem very motivation to take back the job they delegated to immigration. Motivation has nothing to do with it. The employers offering these shitty jobs have gotten used to being able to pay poor wages to cheap imported labour. They need to pay more, and the jobs will be filled. Look at the wage growth of truck drivers as an example. > - the UK education system sucks. Disagree here. The UK punches way above its weight in terms of high end education institutions per capita (trailing only the US) The UK also has more STEM grads per capita than any European country.
- BiteCode_dev 5y agoI'll upvote you because I love people being civil on HN. > That is about goods, which are totally separate to immigration. Yes, but you need trucks, boats, and loaders for those. A lot of the people dealing with that are immigrants. > The employers offering these shitty jobs have gotten used to being able to pay poor wages to cheap imported labour. Working in agriculture as always been low paid back breaking work. There were no "good old time". We are just not used anymore to have a part of our own population is been used as semi-slave and shutting up. Not saying it's a bad thing, we should strive to make for better working conditions. But those jobs still need to be done, and we don't have android doing them for now. It could go the Australian way, and make those jobs decently paid, but even there, immigrates still do those jobs! Not to mention their economy is sky rocketing so they can afford it. > The UK punches way above its weight in terms of high end education institutions per capita (trailing only the US) The UK also has more STEM grads per capita than any European country. The number are high yes, but the level of graduates is terrible. In fact, I got my diploma despite not handing out my final memoir or reaching the minimal passing grades. I spent a year drunk, and got a paper stating I studied hard and was worthy of my profession. And damn, most of my friends were even worst than me. Papers were a joke. Nothing was reproducible, arguments were barely holding together. Not to say my mates in French universities were geniuses, but the difference is glaring.