A welfare state neutralises the risk of migration

Disingenuous "straw man" article in the New Statesman.

The issue is not so much benefit tourism now, although this is significant - empirical evidence tells you it is a problem for instance every one of my local GP surgeries are packed with eastern Europeans; the public library used to have exhausted migrant field workers sleeping in every available armchair while waiting for transport to their lodgings (until the staff removed the armchairs and now the migrants sleep at the tables with picture books held in their insensible hands); every professional abortion carried out on a citizen of the Irish Republic for the last 50 years has been by means of benefit tourism to the United Kingdom etc etc).

The issue is much more complicated than George Eaton is admitting.

The British welfare state, although we tend to take it for granted, is a magnet for people all around the world not just because migrants intend to arrive here and immediately start claiming benefits (although a significant number are doing this).  The fact that we have a free NHS and a welfare state neutralises the risk of migration for the individuals and families planning to migrate.  If you are a poor family in Bulgaria and Romania planning to better your life chances through migration there is always a fear that things might not work out.  The jobs and housing might not be available.  The parents might fall seriously ill.  The savings might run out before they can establish themselves.

Therefore although the jobs market might be better in Germany, or the cultural match might be better in Spain, the United Kingdom has the considerable prize of risk-free migration because of the safety-net provision of the welfare state.

When one considers the situation outside the EU (and two thirds of immigration is from outside the EU according to figures from the reputable think tank Migration Watch) the attraction is magnified many times over as no-one in the United Kingdom would allow people to die in the street or babies to suffer from diphtheria or lepers forced to live rough in untouchable colonies (whereas all these things happen, and far worse things, in most of the countries of the developing world).

For destitute people in the poorest societies in the world the dream is:  if I can only get to the United Kingdom the nightmare of poverty will end.

Therefore the message from politicians needs to be clear that no migrants will be able to claim any benefits or other welfare (including free healthcare and free education) in the United Kingdom for at least five years (and possibly ten years would be a better disincentive).

Otherwise the welfare state has to go.

The left needs to wake up and realise that they cannot have universal welfare provision and completely unrestricted immigration.

Even their mickey mouse economics should be able to work that out.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/03/how-ministers-are-scaremongering-over-benefit-tourism