Pack (house) mentality is no  way to look at migration problem

Boston and immigration was on the BBC’s national and local agenda last week as the government announced that net migration – the number of people who come to live in Britain, minus the number leaving – remains at  a record 250,000  ... despite a government pledge to cut it to tens of thousands by 2015.
Although the news was not announced in time for its breakfast programme, BBC Radio Lincolnshire didn’t let this stand in its way – and managed to make Boston’s problems dominate the morning agenda regardless, with interviews with Boston Protest March organiser Dean Everitt; Councillor Mike Gilbert, who holds the Cabinet’s poisoned chalice for Community Development; an exceptionally long-winded Roger Helmer, one of our Lincolnshire MEPs, and Spalding farmer, Robert Oldershaw.
This over-egging of the immigration pudding allowed Radio Lincolnshire to run four interviews at some length in its two prime morning slots – those after 7am and 8am.
The peg for all this was the first meeting of the council’s Task and Finish Group on immigration – which had taken place exactly two weeks before.
We got an eerie sense of déjà vu – as the last time our local radio station decided to run Boston through the migration mill was by featuring the visit of the Home Office team to discuss the issue – a week after it had taken place.
March organiser Dean Everitt - whilst hoping that the Task and Finish Group would produce some really good results, nonetheless said that “the march will never be ruled out - there’s always the possibility of the march.”
He said that immigration could not carry on at the rate it’s going at the moment “because we’re just going to be overpopulated.”
“The council’s the first step. The council can persuade Government. The council are mainly political people, so they have some sway with the government, and I mean that they’re more attached to Mark Simmonds that what we are.”
However, Councillor Gilbert seemed less optimistic on that score, when he said: “There’s clearly a limit on how much a small local authority like ours can do. But we have the opportunity to talk to ministers, talk to MPs and that’s what we’re going to be doing.”
Whilst he outlined some issues that the group might deal with, in the main he sounded accepting of the status quo.
Highlight quotes include:
• We are part of the European Community, and I can’t see in any sort of short timescale, regulations and rules around migration in Europe being changed. Whether or not it’s a realistic prospect for us to get out of Europe in a way that would enable us to put up our borders I don’t know, that’s far beyond the scope of a local politician like me to have views of that magnitude really. Clearly what we can say about the situation is that people come to Boston to work. They come from the Eastern European countries to work. They have an incentive to come to Boston … and there are clearly issues in terms of why local people are not able or prepared to fill those vacancies … That clearly isn’t the case, and I think there’s some issues around the labour market which need to be explored and what’s disincentivising local people to do the work …
• A lot of families come here and they bring their children, and their children take places in local schools, as you’d expect. We’re a fair country and we provide education for children up to the age of 16. So if the children come here, they’re entitled to an education, and we provide that. I think in some ways we try and minimise the impact, so I think some children find that they’re not able to get into the school that they would ideally like to get into because places are filled.
• On healthcare:–   I think in some ways it’s proven to be advantageous having a slight uplift in the population. Certainly a few years ago they were talking about closing down the maternity unit at Pilgrim Hospital. I don’t think there’s much chance of that happening now. But in other areas there’s probably GP surgeries and things where services are potentially getting stretched. But I haven’t got any evidence of first hand experience of that, I have to say.
• On initial hurdles to overcome :– It’s very difficult to say. I’ve already alluded to some issues around the functioning of the labour market, and there are clearly issues to do with why the local people are not able to access employment in the area, and I think that may be something to do with the cost of housing. It’s a highly complicated issue. I’m hoping the Task and Finish Group will explore issues of that sort. That can be something that’s taken to Government and in relation to things like the use of illegal vehicles or anti social behaviour, or in terms of providing funding for services. We need to start monitoring when vehicles enter and leave the country, so that we can be clear about whether they are entitled to drive without paying British tax or whether they’re not.”
Spalding farmer Robert Oldershaw said that of the 250 lower skilled, lower paid “but above minimum wage” line factory workers he employed, up to 70% were migrants. He said there was “an over supply of over-qualified young people” and that the issue was to try to encourage young British nationals to do these jobs. He would “struggle” if he wasn’t able to employ migrant workers.
“If you come out of university and you’ve got a degree, I think that the last thing that you think of yourself as doing is going and working on a line.”
The BBC Six o’clock News added nothing to the debate.
UK affairs correspondent Chris Butler stopped one man in the street who complained that there were: “more foreigners around our doctor’s than there are English people.” A group from Portugal said there were too many migrants here. Dean Everitt complained: “I lost my job to two Polish workers willing to do my job for the money that I was being paid as a single person, and so my employer got two people for the price of one.” Immigration Minister Damian Green claimed that fewer visas had been issued, but, as Chris Butler pointed out: “In Boston, cutting visas will make little difference. Most migrants are from within the EU and have every right to live in the UK.” Magdalena Korzeb, from Boston,  said: “I believe we are seen by the English people as somebody who are taking their jobs and are on benefits,” at which point Butler intervened to say: “and the truth is you’re actually bringing employment here because you run a business? - Yes.”
And he ended his report with this helpful observation: “The challenge for councils and others is to adapt as growing numbers put ever greater pressure on their resources.”
What on earth can you make of all this?
One thing that disappoints us is the attitude towards employment.
Councillor Gilbert points to “issues” surrounding local people and their unavailability for packhouse work.
It is something that has come up time and time again.
Sadly it appears that the working context in which Boston’s great and good view local people – particularly the young –  is in lowly paid areas of the food industry.
This is, perhaps an inevitable but sad acknowledgment of the shameful fact that of our 632 parliamentary constituencies, Boston and Skegness is 17th in the bottom twenty – with 22 per-cent of working age people between 16 and 64 having no qualifications.
We are reminded of a recent quote from local MP Mark Simmonds: “I can meet some young people in Boston who say ‘Mark, when are you going to get all these migrants out of our town, and I say to them, ‘Well, when you’re prepared to go into the fields or the packhouses.”
And of course a similar line has been heard from Boston Borough Council leader Peter Bedford, who declared: “It’s the fact that our population have got to get used to the fact of starting to apply for such jobs (in the packhouses) again.”
Boston is never going to be another silicon valley - but rather than stereotyping the town and saying things such as young people are “over qualified for packhouse work," we should be striving to bring white collar, better quality businesses to Boston so that our talented youngsters are not driven away, and the town may at last begin to claw itself out of the mire.
We are also amused to hear reference to “a slight uplift in the population” when the borough council has been alleging exactly the opposite for some considerable time.
Meanwhile, Dean Everitt’s warning that “the march will never be ruled out” seem less concerning  – particularly given the quotes attributed to him on Boston Borough Council’s website and in its monthly bulletin … which do not exactly chime with what we hear when he speaks on radio and TV, and read when he writes on Facebook.

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