Immigration is Bad For Britain | Douglas Murray

Well, thank you very much, it has been a very interesting debate. It's very nice to be back at Oxford Union. Apologies for being poorly dressed. I had black tie when I was at Oxford, but it's been over 12 years now and I gave it a try. in my black tie from before and it looks less like a dinner suit than a wetsuit um but despite my direction um I would like to address some of the things that haven't been addressed that respond to some of the discourse that has already emerged from both sides and to address what I think is an issue that we have to take seriously because it's about our future as a country and a society and, in my opinion, it's not going to be easy and it's going to require quite a bit of pretty clear and tough engagement, Frank .

Thinking, let me first give you some facts. We have to start with the facts: the 2011 census, which was published last year, showed that the number of people living in England and Wales who were born abroad has increased by almost 3 million in recent years. In just a decade, only 44.9% of London residents now tick the box that says they are White British and almost 3 million people in England and Wales now live in households where no adult speaks English as their primary language. London in London 23 of the 33 London London Burrows in 23 of those 33 Londoners, people who identify as white British are now a minority.

By the way, a spokesperson for the Office of National Statistics hailed that as diversity, but I can assure you that some of those Burrows are not diverse. not at all on the issue of the

immigration

rate, let's make one thing clear, no one on my side is certainly not against

immigration

and that's not what the motion is about and you can reinvent it as much as you want, but that's not what it's about is that there have been too many things and I would say, as I think other speakers have already said, that many things did not happen in the 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s, but happened under the Labor government in the 90s and early 1990s. 2000 there is a reason that this country has always been a nation of immigrants, which is not true, it is not true, for most of the history of this country there was a very homogeneous group of people on these islands and the idea, Excuse me, the idea that what is happening now is what has always happened is simply a lie and you have to pay attention to this, the Hugos are always given as an example, a very good example and a group of which 50,000 Hugo They arrived in this country in the period of the 1680s.

Thereafter, 50,000 hugos over a period of years was equivalent to approximately two months of immigration in the 1990s. 50,000 was approximately two months. The Ugandan Asians expelled by ID Yamin, which this country, I think rightly welcomed, numbered 30,000 people. In the late 1990s, 30,000 people was 6 weeks of immigration, so the first thing I want to say is that speed and rate are important and they are important for a reason that I will come back to in a moment, but first let me mention some of the arguments that have arisen. What does need an answer on this, the first is the inevitable argument that the reason we need mass immigration and have needed it is because there are jobs that the British don't want to do and we need to import people to do those jobs, let me tell you . "Quite frankly, it is one of the most racist arguments you can hear; it suggests that there are jobs that the British not only don't want to do, but shouldn't do, don't have to do, don't we." We don't even have to encourage them to do it, please, they already tried, we don't even need to encourage them to do it, but we will go around the rest of the world and look for people who are willing to work for nothing because it provides us with cheap babysitters and cheap waiters in restaurants and so on.

I think it is a regrettable argument. The second argument that you can hear and which we already had tonight is the argument about aspiration, as I would say, from the other end. They were from the economic spectrum that it is the best possible idea that we travel around the world and aspire to nurses and doctors in Africa and in other regions of the world that we can take to third world people that the third world has educated magnificently and make sure that they benefit us again. I think it is a regrettable argument. Look, the argument over immigration often comes down to net benefits.

Is it a net economic benefit or an economic problem? By the way, in the material on this you can find more or less a 50/50. about 50% of the studies say there is a huge positive impact for the country, the other 50% say the opposite and, by the way, that even goes from Lord Singh to the study that you cited, you cited the UCL study, that The same study found that between 1995 and 2011, immigrants in the United Kingdom received 95 billion more in services and benefits than they contributed in taxes; that is the same study that you cited, another one that we were told and we got it from someone on the floor, we need immigrants because we are going to pay our pensions, ladies and gentlemen, wherever the gentleman is, let me tell you something: a shocking fact, the Immigrants also age, a surprising fact, which means that if you have that model every year, you need to import more and more immigrants because you have to support what is known as the pyramid or immigration model and it doesn't work either.

Look, one of the strange things about having this debate is that everyone thinks they have to tiptoe around. I'm sure you're nervous. about walking through the proposal lobby tonight, I'm sure he will because this is an issue that is fervent and celebrated in all kinds of ways, but one of the oddities about this is that there is complete political unanimity on this side of the house. political unanimity Jack Straw, who was one of the Labor ministers who presided over that catastrophic period of two fast migrants, now says he said it in November last year that it was a spectacular mistake, those are his words, a spectacular mistake, David Milleran , now union leader, says that in the next general election, oh Ed, it's very easy to apologize Ed Miller and now Labor leader, says that if he wins the next general election, which he could, he will reduce net immigration because he realizes that his party was wrong, he said in September last year.

I want to reduce overall immigration. David Cameron's party leader Nadim, the man who would actually be prime minister perhaps in 2015, said in his speech last year, on March 25, that Contra Nadim said that against his argument, immigration under the previous government was too high. and the system was totally out of control net migration needs to be radically reduced those are the words of the Prime Minister this is not an out Rider argument it is what they say now all the main political parties say it because it is what the public thinks 77 The % of people in last year's British Social Attitudes Survey said they wanted immigration to be reduced, almost 60% said they wanted it to be reduced a lot.

That is the opinion of the British people and, surprisingly, politicians have to try to respond to that. and a serious need now I'm aware that the bell is gone, but let me address the issue very quickly, if I can find it, it came up from a couple of people and this is the key thing I really wanted to mention if I may. Have a moment, this question of our values, I hate hearing this, we don't know who we are, because so often it leads to the idea that we are nothing, Britain is nothing, Britain never existed, it's not an identity etc. .

One of the reasons you hear that is because it's an attempt, I think, an honest and decent attempt by people to answer a real question: when you have migration at the rate that this country has had in recent years, you have to expand and water. Write down your definition of what you are because there are people who get there so quickly that what your definitions of yourself would have been would no longer hold if you had asked someone 50 years ago what Britishness is what British values ​​are they would have said it very clearly. personified in a set of historical institutions in the institutions of parliament in the institutions of trial by jury and the high courts in the great schools and universities they would have said the monarchy they would have said the Church of England why is it now that we have this great debate endless who we are, what we are, it's because we want to welcome people, but it's happened so quickly that we have to end up doing things like saying being British is about fair play or being nice to people.

Everyone wants to be nice to people. Few people would say that our identity as a country is to be mean to people, but we soften it because it's what we think we have to do and in a way we are right because it has become very difficult to say what is or can be or should be. British for people when immigration happens at this rate, I would say, ladies and gentlemen, that this is something that in your life and mine is going to be a colossal issue, migration brings all kinds of benefits when it comes to this type of pace, I would say that it also brings some very negative things and one of the things is that the people of this country include many, many immigrants and I will end up with so many immigrants, including the first and second immigrants.

Second, first and second generation immigrants now say that there is a problem with the speed of immigration because it changes the country, it is all very well saying that we are open to people who share our values, but if our values ​​are diluted and the people who They come at the rate they do. It's not surprising that we end up defending immigration as an economic issue because we will be giving up our culture, we will be giving up our identity and we will be saying what some people are saying now, which is that the people of Britain and Europe have lost their place in the world.

I think it's right that people have a place they call home, an identity they're proud of. I think it's for all the people around the world and I think it's for the people of this country and I hope that tonight you can vote to say that you think the same too, thank you