Immigration is such a hotly debated subject, it has at times demanded as many column inches and airtime as exposed love rats John Terry and Ashley Cole.
So, on reading about a programme called The Day the Immigrants Left, I was keen to take a look.
The documentary, presented by Evan Davis (if you don’t know him he is the rather odd looking narrator from Dragons’ Den), aimed to explore the effects of immigration in the UK.
His case study focused on Wisbech, a town in Cambridgeshire, which since 2004 has received up to 9,000 immigrants seeking work - the majority from Eastern Europe.
To test if the town needed so many foreign workers, immigrant employees were temporarily removed from their jobs, and the work given to the local unemployed, giving the town's British workers a chance to prove they can do it.
From there, 11 British unemployed workers were recruited to go into a range of different Wisbech workplaces; including a potato company, an asparagus farm, an Indian restaurant and a building site run by a local landlord.
If you are wondering how they fared compared to the infamously hard working foreigners, the answer, on the whole, was not too well.
Only three out of the 11 who took part gave a decent account of themselves, the rest either failed to turn up, or, those that did, appeared to be more concerned with taking cigarette breaks and ‘stropping’ if the going got tough.
The lame text messages sent, and pathetic excuses given, were embarrassing and completely transparent. A toddler could have come up with better.
Also you almost sensed an air of arrogance in some quarters, turning their noses up at a perceived ‘lowbrow’ job.
This, considering some had been out of work for five years, was shocking.
Prime examples of the Wisbechs’ workers shortcomings were clear on the asparagus farm. Here they earned their keep by picking as much as possible; the more they picked, the more they made.
Over the course of a normal day immigrants averaged around 120kg, the Wisbechs between 30-50kg.
From this evidence it is understandable why the big boss man is pro an Eastern European workforce; they work like Trojans – plus it makes business sense.
And looking at it from the immigrants’ perspective, if you had the chance to come over to a country and earn far better money than your homeland, wouldn’t it be idiotic not grab it with both hands? After all, large numbers do have families to support.
A Polish friend told me, attempting to get on the property ladder at home on a standard wage would take 10 years, come to England and work solidly for two and they are able to provide four walls for their family.
A counter argument: is enough of the money earned by the immigrants being put back into the British economy?
The knee jerk reaction is no, which may be correct; however, trying to quantify numbers is a whole different ball game.
Saying all this, it would be completely unfair to say it is a representation of the whole British public.
Obviously, you have to take into consideration the people who are not able to work, those with health issues and the people that really can’t get a job.
All I’m saying, is for the able bodied it is a matter of putting in the hard yards, irrelevant of the level or type of job.
In fact I’d have a cheeky flutter on there being a strong positive relationship between hard work and success.
My conclusion: the jobs are there for people who are capable and willing; unfortunately it is the attitude hindering progression.
Immigrants are not taking all our jobs – they are just willing to work themselves to the bone – something employers would be stupid to ignore.
(Watch The Day the Immigrants Left on BBC I Player).
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