Is it long term though?

In the short term the EU immigrants are good - they are overwhelmingly young (so place less strain on the NHS) and pay tax which helps make up the demographic time bomb re our pensions etc. caused by our aging population

No-one knows if it'll be a long term problem. The principle of the EU is that over time the economies will converge more. If that happens less will arrive and when they get older many of those here will go home (think of them as a bit like UK students working on a gap year - it's like a rite of passage).

Remember they are here because our economy is booming and there is a shortage of qualified workers to do jobs. So we need them as much as they need us. The money from the growth they enable will hopefully enable us to deal with the effects. No-one really knows the long-term effects so we are in effect making it up as we go along. This is where flexibility comes in.

Posted By: mr carra, Jun 23, 15:39:43