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The United Kingdom is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Its population has risen fast in the last decade, mostly due to the unplanned arrival of economic migrants. Most of these migrants have found work but there is no denying that their numbers have put great strains on services such as education, health and housing in many areas. To pretend that this level of migration could be allowed to continue, or even accelerate is just plain barmy. The ability to assimilate new arrivals has already been pushed beyond saturation point in some areas.

People with no connection to the UK or the EU have no 'right' of access to the UK unless they are refugees seeking political asylum. In that case, they should seek shelter in the first safe country they come to. This is seldom the UK; our neighbors are pretty civilized. The problem we face is that with 27 countries in the EU, many of them far poorer than the UK, too many people have the 'right' to come and live here. Add in relatives of Britons of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and West Indian ancestry and the number goes up far more. That being the case, a small country like the UK cannot operate an open door policy towards the rest of the world. Some form of discrimination has to be applied.

Race is unacceptable as a discriminatory factor. Country of origin, which is somewhat different, is not. Nor is age, education, occupation or skill level, proficiency in English or a range of other issues. They would be applied to someone such as myself if I wished to try to enter Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA or various other countries and at my age I might well be rejected. The system being adopted by the UK is no more 'unjust' than the system already in place in many of the above counties.

The fact is that some people will only accept totally unfettered migration. The UK can not cope with this. The lure of the generous support given to new arrivals and the ubiquity of the English language make us too popular a target; witness the encampments near the Channel Tunnel terminal at Calais where economic migrants lurk until they can stow away on a truck bound for the UK. Apparently they do not see 'la belle France' as quite so desirable.

The sensible approach is to try to limit newcomers to those we have no option but to admit, those we are happy to admit, and those we need to enhance our society. Highly skilled migrants
fall into the latter two categories.

Learn more about this author, Mark Hopkins.
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