The post you are reporting:
There have been many periods in fairly recent history where we have encouraged people from overseas to come here - some from within Europe, many from without.
We asked for people, as Sid said, from the Carribean, various countries in Africa - not many Rhodesians came here after being betrayed by Britain and various Prime Ministers; from Harold MacMillan and his "Wind of Change" speech, Harold Wilson, several times, through to Margaret Thatcher at the end.
The numbers from the various countries at those times, were not great, it is only since the increase of European countries, where we have allowed people to come here and the fact we had no real immigration controls so we didn't know who was who or what was what and it was an open-door policy, later admitted by Labour as part of their long-term policy: flood-gate is a more accurate description.
Of course people will come here for a better life, more money, better housing, education, etc. etc. than what they have in their own country.
The problem is that we can't afford to keep these flood-gates open - and not just on financial grounds either.
If we are staying in the EU, we must negotiate stronger, more robust immigration levels and limits. If we can't.....................
Roger
