Racist crap on these boards

julieq

tesuhoha wrote: »

Could someone please define a racist? I mean is it someone who disagrees with immigration because the country is overcrowded, and its resources drained. i.e. all the secondary schools in this area are oversubscribed and there are no school places. Please define a racist because I find it extremely offensive that the term is bandied about so easily and loosely.

Personally, to me a racist is someone who dislikes another race because of their colour/religion, not someone who disagrees with the idea of immigration because they think it bad for the country.

You can certainly disagree with immigration, but it really doesn't follow that it causes problems with schools, overcrowding and other resources. You're blaming one (new) section of the population for all the ills of the entire community, and that if not racist is at least blanket scapegoating by group.

In effect you are implying that "immigrants" bring nothing with them, i.e. they just consume resources and put nothing back. In fact they have jobs, they pay taxes, and they often fill local needs - the fact that "polish plumbers" exist is a testament to how difficult plumbers are to find. Non-EU immigrants must demonstrate specific skills in short supply.

It's a complex picture, and no-one in their right mind would suggest that there aren't challenges caused by migration and our response to it (for example the idea of providing translations, or the problems caused when schools are faced with an influx of children who don't speak English) but on the whole migratory workers from countries who intend to return there are good for us. The indigenous population is ageing, migrants provide a source of tax income without the big end of life expenses, bluntly. This is the case I suspect for most of the EU migration. So it's up to us as a community to find solutions for the challenges, rather than just trying to turn the tap off completely.

MSE_Martin

I think this one is now closed.

We have put a reminder in the economy board

Pls report any posts you believe are racist to [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL] rather than responding to them

Martin