Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

Considering reducing the number of international students who choose to pay a fortune to study at our universities - worth £28.8 billion to the UK - is stupid: every part of the UK is financially better off, on average by £390/person, because of international students.🇬🇧

The net economic benefit of £25.9 billion is spread across every part of the UK. The contribution to the UK economy of international students in 2018/19 for Sheffield Central was £290M, Nottingham South £261M, Newcastle East £240M & Glasgow Central £171M.
hepi.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…

In historic terms, concern about immigration remains relatively low - remarkable given that net migration to the UK is at a record high of more than half a million in the year to June 2022. Ipsos MORI has charted the change in degree of concern over time.

ft.com/content/a6a2a0…

We've had more than a decade of unachievable policy promises, including the lie that Brexit would reduce immigration, & plenty of irresponsible "invasion" rhetoric, & yet immigration to the UK not only remains high but is higher now than it has ever been.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1589634410198237184?s=20&t=ubsFn4_MOEu3UnRVRmFzwA

"Rishi Sunak has pledged to get net migration down — a silly promise when David Cameron made it & an even sillier one now. Ultimately the UK government cannot control the various forces that lead to the UK’s “net” migration figure." - Stephen Bush, FT, November 25th, 2022.

One reason why the UK has a record-breaking high this year is the large number of refugees who have come here from Hong Kong, Ukraine & Afghanistan, in addition to smaller numbers from Syria & Eritrea.

Truth still matters.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1561464371104079874?s=20&t=ubsFn4_MOEu3UnRVRmFzwA

If there is a fresh wave of repression in Hong Kong, is Sunak really going to say “sorry, we’re full?” If Ukraine’s military successes go into reverse, is he going to declare that the UK is closed until 2024? Of course he’s not.

We all know what's behind the 'migrant' narrative.

The other factors driving the UK’s record migration levels — a post-Covid bounce in numbers, the number of vacancies in the UK labour market — are similarly outside any government’s control. And many of the levers the state can pull directly have undesirable effects politically.

Job vacancies are already difficult to fill, & due to free-market extremism, our #NHS is on its knees & people are suffering because it has been deliberately underfunded & deliberately deprived of staff since 2010 to facilitate a shift to a private healthcare/insurance model.

The Govt could decrease the number of vacancies the UK economy has to fill from abroad by investing in skills training & further education — an area where the UK lags behind many of its peers. But that route is now closed due to the 'mini-budget' resulting in more #austerity.

You could improve this by adequately funding the government’s life-long learning entitlement and by reversing the cuts to further education — but that again costs money, & in the short-term you can't run those improved services without high immigration either!

We’ve seen the consequences of multiple decades of promises that politicians simply cannot keep on immigration, which include high levels of public distrust, & a stupidly hard Brexit.

But @Conservatives are addicted to & entirely dependent on scapegoating for electoral success.

Ultimately, the only way to become a country without any illegal immigrants arriving, is to become a country which people try to illegally immigrate from! Increasing the speed of processing asylum claims is one way the Tories could achieve something - but they prefer a scapegoat.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1596071851511656448?t=VhhQ8p1yqa0BHVopqlIl_A&s=19

Oh look.

https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1596982644784467969?t=KQst3cMTggWjDsGPMS67Ng&s=19

https://twitter.com/doctor_oxford/status/1596944179091083264?t=DkBILqOTl2TYOu7w6-WbDA&s=19