Predictably rose-tinted view of north-north migration by pro-migration lobbyist (masquerading as a "researcher") Alex Glennie: http://britishinfluence.org/point-view-costs-reducing-eu-migration-uk-must-weighed-benefits/
The article is a heavily-disguised frightener - if we curtail EU migration we will face all sort of dire consequences including acute labour shortages, vastly more dependents to support and higher taxes all round.
She gets round the difficulty of supplying evidence for her assertions by calling the piece a "Point Of View".
If Ms Glennie can find time from her view-spouting she might care to read the World Migration Report 2013 – Migrant Well-being and Development just published by the International Organization for Migration.
She would then see that "Migrants are less likely to feel happy or experience enjoyment, compared to the native-born" and that the consumerist model of society is leading to alienation and unhappiness, even when migrants see an economic improvement in their material condition.
This is of course so obvious that many commentators miss it.
Initially people in less developed parts of the world want to migrate to the west thinking that the better economic conditions will improve their life and opportunities. Compared to their country of origin this is right - an unskilled worker in London will earn more than a professional worker in Bulgaria (assuming that the professional can find work in Bulgaria in the first place). However once the migrant is in the United Kingdom he/she will immediately be surrounded by consumerist ideology and will experience feelings of inadequacy that cannot be satisfied on the low incomes that are available to migrants (and even if they improve their incomes only a tiny few will ever achieve the nirvana of materialist consumerist satisfaction).
Migration is a rotten way to solve the world's problems. It damages the societies in destination countries, it damages the societies in countries of origin, it damages the migrants themselves. It is also an extremely expensive and wasteful way of improving human happiness compared to the alternatives.
http://www.iom.int/cms/wmr2013
The article is a heavily-disguised frightener - if we curtail EU migration we will face all sort of dire consequences including acute labour shortages, vastly more dependents to support and higher taxes all round.
She gets round the difficulty of supplying evidence for her assertions by calling the piece a "Point Of View".
If Ms Glennie can find time from her view-spouting she might care to read the World Migration Report 2013 – Migrant Well-being and Development just published by the International Organization for Migration.
She would then see that "Migrants are less likely to feel happy or experience enjoyment, compared to the native-born" and that the consumerist model of society is leading to alienation and unhappiness, even when migrants see an economic improvement in their material condition.
This is of course so obvious that many commentators miss it.
Initially people in less developed parts of the world want to migrate to the west thinking that the better economic conditions will improve their life and opportunities. Compared to their country of origin this is right - an unskilled worker in London will earn more than a professional worker in Bulgaria (assuming that the professional can find work in Bulgaria in the first place). However once the migrant is in the United Kingdom he/she will immediately be surrounded by consumerist ideology and will experience feelings of inadequacy that cannot be satisfied on the low incomes that are available to migrants (and even if they improve their incomes only a tiny few will ever achieve the nirvana of materialist consumerist satisfaction).
Migration is a rotten way to solve the world's problems. It damages the societies in destination countries, it damages the societies in countries of origin, it damages the migrants themselves. It is also an extremely expensive and wasteful way of improving human happiness compared to the alternatives.
http://www.iom.int/cms/wmr2013
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