Recent OECD stats show UKs immigration numbers jumped way above other countries: a huge 53% increase brought in 746‚900 new-comers (while France only saw 1.1% growth and Netherlands actually went down 4.6%)
The numbers put UK right behind USA in total immigration flow - reaching 1.2 million people. While many folks talk about small-boats in the Channel the real story is about legal arrivals that help keep places running:
- Care homes
- Universities
- Other key services
At the same-time theres a weird mix-up happening: lots of jobs need filling but welfare costs keep growing. More than 9 million working-age people dont work or look for jobs — and about 1/3 of them say theyre long-term sick. By 2028 health-related benefits might cost £63 billion yearly (thats 2.1% of GDP)
The government faces a tough job — they need to cut down immigration but first they gotta fix the work-less problem. Liz Kendall Work and Pensions Secretary seems more worried about words than action though. She thinks calling people “economically inactive“ isnt nice but hasnt suggested better ways to get them working
Its clear that fixing benefits system is key: without getting more local people into jobs its gonna be real hard to bring those migration numbers down. The current set-up just wastes peoples skills — and thats not good for anyone