Sutton and Croydon TUSC

Immigration - TUSC Answers the Lies!

This is the opener for an ongoing effort to supply labour movement answers to the lies and misinformation of the pro-business political parties, their corporate media friends and the Lords, Ladies and lickspittles of UKIP.

This will be particularly crucial if we are able to stand a local Parliamentary candidate (or two!) in the May General Election! 

If you have any particular issues you want us to cover, or questions you want answering, let us know.

“Divide and Rule” has been a core policy of the governing classes for hundreds of years. Getting working people to fight amongst themselves, damaging their social solidarity, and having them blame each other for what is happening, is one of the most important political strategies of the ruling class.

Something heard quite often is - "They take our jobs!"
But how can anyone “take” a job? A worker does not have the power to do that.

It is the employer who chooses who works and who does not!

An employer will often select an immigrant worker for a job, because desperate people are a source of cheap and pliable labour. Labour to be super-exploited!

The only way to stop immigrant workers being used to undermine wages and conditions is to UNIONISE THEM and fight alongside them for a living wage and decent conditions.

The fight for £10 an hour minimum wage for ALL workers is one of the best ways of fighting racism and workers disunity. Ten pounds an hour across the board, no exceptions, no exclusions, would leave no room for employers to use immigrants to drive down wages!

To blame immigrants is to be on the same side as the worst employers. Workers’ disunity helps those employers exploit ALL workers.

Politically, the racist is the employers' little helper!

The people who are REALLY responsible for "taking jobs" are the employers!

It is employers (usually the largest of them) who are closing firms, reducing head counts, outsourcing work overseas!

Did immigration cause Nestlés to move out of Croydon and cut jobs?

Morrisons announced 2,600 job losses in June this year. Did immigrants cause that?

Some Facts (from reliable sources!)

You are nearly twice as likely to be claiming benefits if you are NOT an Immigrant, than if you are.

Immigrants comprise 9% of the UK population. In Germany 13%, in the US 13%.

The Financial Times in its editorial (11 Jan, 2014) said, “Claims that immigrants as a whole are a burden on the state are wrong: the young people who predominate contribute more as taxpayers than they absorb in welfare.”

Of all immigrants arriving from the EU since 2010, 2% have claimed unemployment benefit, even though 6% were eligible.

Working people will always seek a better life; seek to escape war, violence and poverty, corrupt political systems. This is true for British people also, five million of whom live abroad.