By the way Ake, I would like to make clear that I don't believe you are racist.

It would indeed be totally against the grain of your otherwise thought provoking perspectives.

I do think you've gone and dug yourself into a hole after first being suckered in by the most facile and easy to swallow bit of resentment baiting that the far right has to offer.

Unlike many other preposterous ideas, you don't have to dig very deep for very long to expose that legal working immigrants in this country contribute to the economy and the quality of our lives in infinitely greater measure than they detract from it.

I totally reject the age old rubbish that foreigners come over here and take our jobs.

And here's a glimpse of why.

There was unemployment before the windrush came (up to 25% during the depression), there was unemployment of about 2% consistently after the windrush came, there was unemployment after Idi Amin drove ethnic Indians out of Uganda (around 3% and that stayed the same till about 1976-77 when it went up to around 6% where it stayed till about 1980).

So far so good ... the age of immigration seems to have been very positive in terms of employment in the UK.

It certainly isn't any worse than the periods before either of the two wars, from 1890 to 1910 or through the 20's and 30's.

Between 1980 and 2000 there have been fluctuations going up to about 12 percent at the maximum, but ultimately coming back down to around 6%.

From 2000 to 2009, it has been pretty low averaging around 3%

In Addition to this, the quality of people jobs has improved and with them, peoples expectations.

There is evidence for all of the above
here

and
here

Of those unemployed, how many were out of work because their job was "stolen" by a foreigner, how many because they saw themself as too good for the jobs available, and how many have inherited a life of dependance on the state from thier parents grandparents.

And yes, I know that the above analysis is extremely simplistic, however, compared to the view that all the jobs have gone to foreigners it looks like an exhaustively researched Phd.

You know what I think? If we got rid of all our foreigners there would still be unemployment.

And the theory you have so gladly bought into would require another scapegoat -

- women (don't forget that there are a lot more women working today than there were 50 years ago - tsk - stealing our jobs) ...

... jews ... it happened not that long ago in modern, civilized progressive scientific Germany - why are we any better than those Germans who took the bait then? we're all human.