They have an overview guide on their website. From page 5:
"Our government doesn't even know how many immigrants are in the UK, thanks to no border controls."
I'm not sure what non-existant border controls they could be referencing, unless it's the land border to Scotland or the shoreline if one were to sneak over from France.
In applying for my work visa, I had to list all travel in the past 10 years. Thankfully I track this detail for tax purposes and was able to cross-reference against my passport. I have been into the UK and transiting through it 20+ times, through various water entry ports and airports. I have never entered the UK without seeing border controls. Granted, I didn't float across in a dingy though. Although I am more of an 'expat' than an 'immigrant', so maybe not their target population.
I do recall entering other EU nations without passing through passport controls. Once I waltzed into Brussels from the UK--no one blinked twice as I stumbled through. Germany also didn't seem to care so much on those intra-Europe flights...
Even when coming from Northern Ireland, I was questioned by UK passport controls. (I am the person in front of you, EU person, clogging up the line when they only open one or two windows and fail to designate one of them for non-EU nationals.)
Sidenote: I was always amused on a Sunday night in Duesseldorf when they would open three and allow them to co-mingle on a flight from say, Estonia. Without fail you ended up with someone from Africa in one, someone with a German work visa but from a red flag country in the Middle East, and enough dumb Americans and Canadians to slow down the third. Big sighs from the Germans all around as everything ground to a halt...
So we'll see how everything pans out on Thursday. D has offered to take me with as he goes to vote, just so that I could see the activities and atmosphere around it and the last minute campaigning, so I may tag along to see...
3 comments:
They mean Eastern Europeans, especially Poles. Back when the economy was strong there were a lot of them coming in propping up the building industry/being really useful.
But they were speaking their language and having different customs so the newspapers dropped a bollock and asked "Does the gov even know how many of them there are?" and they don't because that is not how EU border checks work (no visa, no counting, no residence permits).
I think a lot of them have returned home as the pound is a lot weaker and it doesn't make sense to put up with a bunch of xenophobic tossers on a rainy island anymore.
Oh and the papers ran stories about "Coming over here, using our hospitals" and actually said that Polish people having babies were a huge strain on the NHS.
But the Poles are free gifts from the land of Poland, all their medical care to date, all their education, skills, their wellbeing has been paid for by their country. They come in, ready to work hard and pay huge taxes and then we say "oh we can't afford to treat foreigners in maternity units". Shameful.
Kel D: thanks for the comments. it's definitely an interesting topic as i've seen much fewer poles since i arrived than i would have expected, given the media's portrayal.
Post a Comment