If you don’t want broth, two cups. One of the fundamental purposes of Brexit was to “control borders” and reduce the presence of foreigners in the United Kingdom, on the grounds that they lowered wages and created pressure on social services. On that premise, Boris Johnson won the absolute majority. But, at the moment of truth, the result of leaving the EU has been the opposite, and more immigrants arrive in the country than ever, both legal and illegal.
A boomerang effect, inability of the Government to close the doors no matter how hard it tries, economic necessity or perhaps political cynicism, and reducing immigration was a simple slogan to cajole people and get Brexit, the same as the promise that slamming the door on Europe would save 400 million euros a week that could be spent on improving healthcare. Either they have not appeared anywhere or they have dedicated themselves to something else, because there are six million Britons queuing for operations (an all-time record), and Johnson has raised Social Security rates so that the system does not collapse completely.
Most likely a bit of everything. Johnson’s purpose was always to seize power, for which he needed to win the vote of culturally conservative ex-Labour members, opposed to immigration, and neutralize the far right (Nigel Farage’s party). But once in Downing Street, the impression of controlling the borders by imposing a points system for visas is more important than the hard numbers of how many people are coming and going. And the polls indicate that the issue has been deactivated politically, and has ceased to be one of the main issues of concern.
The reality, however, is that in the last twelve months the Government has offered visas to one million foreigners – a third more than before the pandemic – to legally reside and work in the country (including 110,000 Hong Kongers). ), more than 15,000 people have been granted political asylum, and another 10,000 have arrived illegally, most of them by boat across the English Channel, figures never reached before. Although in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, immigration does not worry as much as other things, an important sector of voters and deputies are frankly disenchanted and angry.
Figures from the National Statistics Office reveal that net immigration last year reached the figure of 239,000 people, the majority from Asia and, above all, the Indian subcontinent. A total of 193,000 citizens of European Union countries left, for 181,000 who arrived, a deficit of 12,000.
In recent weeks, in search of the British nationalist vote and to counteract the partygate scandal, Johnson has announced a series of populist measures such as the privatization of channel 4 television, the adoption of imperial measurements of weight and height (pounds, ounces and inches instead of kilograms and centimeters), a law allowing it to bypass the Northern Ireland Protocol (which features in the Brexit trade deals), and sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda. Carnaza for the extreme right.
The purpose is to try to neutralize the reality of the data, which shows that, after Brexit, more foreigners than ever have obtained permanent residence permits, and that three out of four applications for political asylum have been accepted, largely due to that, after leaving the EU, the UK can no longer invoke the Dublin agreements. That Protocol allowed him to deny applications and send the applicants to the first European country in which they had set foot.
95% of the Syrians who have requested it, 97% of the Eritreans, 95% of the Sudanese, 91% of the Afghans and 88% of the Iranians have obtained asylum, the highest percentages in more than Two decades. But not because Johnson’s heart has suddenly softened, but because he legally has not been able to reject any more applications with the old argument that they are not politically persecuted but economic refugees, and because in Great Britain there is a lack of labor . Many of the Asians go to work in family businesses or in Research and Technology, but they are no substitute for Polish masons, Bulgarian gardeners, Romanian truck drivers and Spanish, French and Italian waiters. More than a million Europeans who left with the pandemic have not returned. In the hospitality sector there is so much labor shortage that many hotels and restaurants cannot operate one hundred percent, and the lack of personnel in aviation has caused the collapse of airports these days and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights .
The United States and other countries also suffer from a labor shortage problem (the pandemic has led to many early retirements and caused many people to rethink their careers and priorities in life), but in Britain, Brexit has made it even worse. Numerous immigrants arrive, but not for the jobs that are most needed to be filled.
Although officially the unemployment rate is 5.5%, the statistic is misleading because it only includes those who are actively looking for work, and not the hundreds of thousands of Britons who have left the labor market after the pandemic, the highest percentage since the seventies. More than five million people, as many as the entire population of Scotland, claim subsidies from the State (26% in Blackpool, 22% in Hartlepool, 22% in Manchester), considering that it is more expensive for them to be unemployed than earning a minimum wage in a packing house or a call center, and paying taxes that are the highest in seven decades. The obligation to appear periodically at Social Security to demonstrate that you work at least nine hours a week (a requirement to receive aid) is more theoretical than real.
Boris Johnson is not known for being a man who keeps his promises, not to his wives, not to his lovers, not to his friends, not to his political partners and allies, not even to voters. He said he would reduce immigration by tens of thousands a year, and it’s hundreds of thousands, more than ever. He guaranteed that he would control the borders, and so far this year alone, as many asylum seekers have arrived by boat as in all of 2021. One in five jobs is done by a foreigner. Many English people wonder: what happened to Brexit?
