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I have been wanted to put something together for a while now on the facts about immigration, but I've been busy working on several other projects so I'm going to just have to vomit some poorly constructed points right now. I'm sick of idiots on the Daily Mail website - not to mention people in general - who constantly bitch and whinge about refugees or asylum seekers getting hosed down in benefits and given free houses etc. This just isn't true: Asylum seekers cannot claim mainstream income support. Their support comes direct from NASS1. Single asylum seekers aged over 25 are entitled to £38.28, while single people under 25 receive £30. An asylum seeker is entitled to £42 a week per child under 16. This is 70 per cent of what a UK citizen claiming income support would receive. A UK citizen over 25 receives £55.65 and someone aged 18-24 receives £44.05.
So, not exactly a fortune is it? But, Mail readers will cry, don't they all live in a massive house that the average Brit could only dream about? Not exactly: Asylum seekers are initially placed in temporary, short term accommodation. This can be either an induction centre or 'emergency accommodation' - a hostel or house owned by private landlords or housing associations. These are run by councils or charities and paid for by the Home Office... After a short time, asylum seekers are 'dispersed' to houses or flats across the country run by NASS. Asylum seekers cannot choose where they live. They are not given council housing or entitled to housing benefit. Some asylum seekers do not need housing and apply for 'subsistence only' support. They may have friends, family or relatives to live with.
So, again, this doesn't seem to be a massive incentive to struggle to get into the UK at any cost. So why do immigrants / asylum seekers or refugees seem to think that the UK is some kind of wonderful paradise where they will be showered with riches?
As far as I can see they get this impression from the tabloid media, in particular the Daily Mail. Just a few headlines from the Daily Mail featuring 'immigrants' and 'benefits'2: Gambian immigrant pocketed £20,000 in benefits after claiming she had 18 children; Jail for immigrant who built a mansion from benefit fraud; Each illegal immigrant costs us £1m, says study as Government faces calls for amnesty; Migrants claim £170m in benefits as number of arrivals increases to 800,000; Immigrant gang stole £250,000 in benefit cheques and splashed out on luxury gear; Benefits bill for eastern European migrants hits £125m; Britain has to build 2million new homes - just to cope with growing number of immigrants. Not to mention that we shower money on those that hate us and give them 'almost' 9 out of 10 new jobs - leaving hardly any jobs for us Brits.It is important to remember though that the majority of asylum seekers are not allowed to work. Economic migrants from outside the EU have many hoops to jump through to work in the UK and any migrant from within the EU is perfectly entitled to work and live in the UK just as we are entitled to do the same in any other EU country. The problem is asylum, immigration and migration are all one issue as far as the Daily Mail and its readers are concerned. The angry ranting against these mythical problems stops the average Mail reader from engaging with reality. The reality for the average Mail reader is clear: foreigners are taking all of our money and Britain is a soft touch. Certainly Daily Mail commentators are quick to reassure potential immigrants / asylum seekers that the UK is certainly the place to come to: Why should immigrants want to stay in France when Britain works so hard to make them welcome there? If I was given a free house and free money, I'd go to England too. - Michael Hill, Seine Maritime France, 6/5/2009 17:39 Well, if we do keep on putting out the cheese, don't be surprised when we get mice. - Dino Fancellu, Epsom, 6/5/2009 17:24 These people are out for what they can get and know Britain is a soft touch. - Gaz, Gloucester, England, 6/5/2009 18:53 The fact is that the message that Britain is a 'soft touch' for foreigners is spread by the Daily Mail and its readers (as well as other tabloid newspapers). Britain isn't really a soft touch, immigrants, migrants or asylum seekers are not showered with benefits or free houses. It is an amusing irony that this message is being transmitted by the Daily Mail and its readers when they are supposed to want to put people off of coming into the UK. As far as I can see, if you propagate lies about what benefits are available in the UK to asylum seekers or immigrants on a daily basis, you lose the right to complain when people starting queuing up in Calais waiting to sneak across the to the promised land you have convinced them exists.
1 - The NASS has now become the UK Border Agency. 2 - The Daily Mail seem to make no real distinction between immigrants and asylum seekers and I suspect from reading the comments on the Mail website that its readers lump all foreigners entering the country into one homogeneous lump. Therefore I will use immigrant benefit stories to demonstrate how foreigners hearing about such stories might start to think that the UK is some kind of handout haven. |
