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Migration Watch: Recovery in Woodlark population “may” be cause of youth unemployment
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There was some coverage in the right wing press yesterday about a new Migration Watch ‘report‘ purportedly linking Eastern European immigration with youth unemployment. Migration Watch statistical analysis has been covered here before. Even the report itself claims nothing more than a ‘gut instinct’ though:
Youth unemployment in the UK increased by almost 450,000 in the period from 2004 Q1 to 2011 Q3, from 575,000 to 1,016,000. Over the same period, numbers of workers from the A8 countries grew by 600,000. Correlation is not, of course, proof of causation but, given the positive employability characteristics and relative youth of migrants from these countries, it is implausible and counter-intuitive to conclude – as the previous Government and some economists have done – that A8 migration has had virtually no impact on UK youth unemployment in this period.
It really is nothing more than nastiness, akin to rumours and lies about immigrants being dirty, causing crime, causing racism, stealing women and stealing jobs. Oh, hang on a minute…
I’ve been playing withconducting serious research on The Interwebs and have some alternative theories to explain the rise in youth unemployment:
- The name Oliver has become much more popular since 2004 as a baby name. This is surely no coincidence: the increase must be looked into as a cause of youth unemployment and further research is required.
- The RSPB reports that the Woodlark population is recovering and has been moved up from the red to the amber endangered list. A coincidence that youth unemployment has increased at the same time? Don’t be so naive! These innocent seeming birds are a fifth column.
- If you look at the left hand ridge of the Matterhorn in the above image, you can see a startling similarity with the Migration Watch graph on youth unemployment. A coincidence? I think not! This mountain should be pulled in for questioning immediately.
- The number of times I’ve begun sentences with the words ‘if it were up to me…’ since 2004 has been increasing year on year, and having sat down to plot occurrences I am pretty sure that there must be a link to youth unemployment. I blame myself, and will try and stop. That should sort things out.
I wonder if the Daily Mail will be covering my new report?
Alternatively, if you want to see some proper debunking, see Matt Cavanagh in the New Stateman and the new National Institute of Economic and Social Research report out today on employment and immigration, which says there is no link.
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4 Responses
I agree with you FM that Migration Watch are a pretty nasty group of people. They call the PBS a “box ticking exercise” which (as you well know)it really isn’t.
Ignorance reigns supreme in the immigration field and even major law firms in London are confused about the ECHR and what it all means. (If you’d like i’ll send you a link but you have to promise not to tell them to correct their mistakes.)
What is the solution?
The said people, migration watch and the BIG FIRMS, could read this blog buy the HJT training manual and get training from you, Mark and Adrian etc.
Its nice to care about where the people one works with are coming from I reckon …
I remember mentioning Migration Watch to David Allen Green last year and he just totally exploded! In a really massive way:
“This country needs immigration like a fish needs water!” he exclaimed …
A Gujarati attorney friend in Queens NY can’t believe that the Highly Skilled category doesn’t exist in the UK anymore …
Hopefully upon Scottish independence Alex Salmond will introduce new rules for his country.
Cheers.
Have you considered the links between youth unemployment/immigration and global warming? Certainly since the debunking of the accepted theory regarding pirates and global warming (http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/) there does seem to be a need for an alternate explanation to be put forward?
I really liked the “positive employability characteristics” term. Someone should remind them about it next time they claim migrants arrive in the UK in order to claim benefits :)
How can Migration Watch be sure that the people who arrived are still working in the UK? As far as I know many immigrants have gone back since the economy started declining. Surely, following Migration Watch logic, that should have led to a decrease in unemployment levels among UK nationals? Spurious, indeed….
You are absolutely spot on. The amazing thing is that these reports do not say anything about immigrants who start their own businesses here to employ so many Brits and pay taxes to pay for the many Brits on benefits, I read the comments on the Sun, and my conclusion is that such reports shift the blame of govt failure to immigrants. So many p’ple believe that all non whites are immigrants out there, including my Immigration Judge at YH who made my client feel more Ghanian than Brit! And now that students have been priced out of education, UK will need more educated immigrants than before with all big industries relocating to cheaper cities. The govt needs to address unemployment by creating jobs and training people for these jobs.