I'VE just returned from England, following a holiday, and watched as the Paris terrorist attacks escalated and played out on news channels.
The bombings and shootings lent an obvious fuel to the fire that is the pressure against immigration from stuffed-up countries like Syria to supposedly safe, lucrative and benefit-friendly countries within Europe -- notably Britain.
This is worth reflecting on because you might think we are under pressure from taking in immigrants, and that we are overdoing it, as some political parties might have you think. But when you have sampled what it is like in Europe and Britain you realise that in New Zealand the impact is nothing.
I stayed primarily in Oxford while on holiday, plus a visit to Bournemouth. In both cases, virtually all the service industries were manned by immigrants. If you got your coffee, the barista was from another country. Most retail shops, bookshops, tourist booths, employed immigrants. They are, in effect, doing the menial jobs that English people are less inclined to do. And they do this in Oxford, one of the most expensive cities in England -- by living 10 people in a flat. It might mean almost every second person you meet on the street is a "foreigner", but the economy is rolling. People are working. Crap jobs, maybe, but someone has to do them.
Stop and think about how good we have it in this country with our immigration, and the value that's added because our policies are a great deal more discerning in terms of what talent comes into this country. We pick the cream of the world for our immigration, and we take in a minimal number of refugees, who are enormously motivated to do well. You simply can't lose with this formula. England struggles with xenophobia and intolerance because it opened its borders, yet its industries are fuelled with labour. Economy and industry comes from population -- which we don't have enough of. Give us some more of those unwanted masses.
