When a flood is not a flood

Control of our borders, or bored of our controllers?

On the day that far right Dutch politician Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration Freedom Party (PVV) looked set to win 37 seats in the country’s general election, making them the largest party, the BBC News website decided to lead with some far right “populism” of their own, running the headline “UK net migration in 2022 revised up to record 745,000”.

It’s worth taking this figure into context. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) estimates that the current population of U.K. in 2023 is 67,736,802, a 0.34% increase from 2022. On the other hand, the global population growth is around 0.88%, so the UK increase rate is still much less than half the general world increase rate. This is not expressed in the news items, which are left context-free.

Here the BBC is playing to the right-wing narrative of Farage, Sunak and Braverman.

We in the ACN are very clear that we want an end to capitalism. But even in capitalist terms, and plain old racism aside, the fear-mongering over immigration does not make sense.  “They are taking our jobs” is the implication, but that doesn’t happen. The size of the workforce does not stay static while the population rises.

In 1960, the UK population was 52,543,017. The workforce (16 – 64 year-olds in employment) was around 25,250,000. When the population rose to the estimated 67,826,318, the number of jobs in the economy did not remain at 25,250,000. The number of 16-64 year-olds currently estimated to be in work is 75.7%, compared with 72.8% when the population was 15 million less. Of course, employment rates go up and down, but this is the result of the inherent booms and busts of capitalism, and does not correlate with population growth.

It’s worth noting that under capitalism, people on low to average earnings spend more of their money than the rich do. The wealthy tend to save it, or worse still send it to tax havens, out of reach of the economy.

If an immigrant is allowed to work (and remember the rules do not allow asylum seekers to do so), they buy food, clothes, bus fares. This is money that goes into circulation, unlike the tax haven hoardings of the rich which goes out of circulation.

Please note, we are not making an argument for capitalism, just describing how things work at the moment.

So, the argument that immigrants are a drain is false. Of course, it could be argued that there is not sufficient infrastructure. But that is a political decision. A decision not to invest in primary health, or hospitals, or schools. Governments could decide to spend that money if they wanted, but they’d rather subsidise the wealthy. Those same wealthy who are hiding their fortunes from the revenue in tax havens.

Thus, we have demonstrated that even by the standards of capitalism, immigration is not too high. It is therefore just another scare story to divide the working class against itself.

Were governments actually concerned about immigration, rather than just using it to divide and rule, then they would act now on climate change. For as more and more areas of the globe become inhospitable, more and more people will inevitably flee to the temperate zones.

But ask yourself this. What would it take you to flee your home and community with barely any possessions, and take desperate chances on dangerous sea crossings? Would you do it on a whim or for an “easy life”? You would not. And so, we must act with human compassion and with human solidarity for those driven to do so. And we must recognise that as capitalism continues to destroy the planet more and more people will need our compassion and solidarity.

By Dundonald