Immigrants DO take all the Jobs.

Thanks to The Ranting Penguin for flagging up this interesting nugget revealed by a FOI request.

The statistics show that 106% of the private sector jobs created between 1997 and 2007 were taken by immigrants. So, not only did immigrants take all the new jobs, but some of the existing jobs too. I don't quite know how the figures work, but Fraser Nelson in his article promises to put all the data online. It will be interesting to scrutinise it in some detail.

Whether the 106% figure is credible, it does prove something that ordinary citizens at the bottom of the employment queue have known for some time: immigrants are taking a large majority of jobs, to the exclusion of UK-born workers.

Following on from this, needs to be some investigation of why employers prefer immigrant labour to home-grown. Is it that they are better educated, or is it something else? I know there is an element of the underclass that are considered feckless and workshy, but that's not the case with all UK workers. So just what is it that stops UK employers taking on a majority of UK workers?

I've seen the trend myself: I'm still unemployed after 18 months of looking for jobs. I've done a couple of very temporary jobs, but nothing substantial has materialised.

I'm beginning to wonder if this is isn't a reaction to the current job market trend. It seems pretty clear that the full-time, long-term job market has collapsed and that the majority of places out in the real world are short-term, temporary jobs. Those people on benefits would like to take up those jobs, especially if they pay more than jobseekers, or income support, but there's a trap: if you come off benefit, it takes weeks to get back onto it. So taking a one or two week temporary job means losing income for a further 6 weeks or so after that. With a raft of associated form filling as they re-apply to a succession of different agencies for jobseekers, council tax benefit, housing benefit, etc. People don't realise, but each benefit needs to be applied for seperately to a seperate government agency, each time necessitating the filling in of a 50-page booklet (thanks to New Labour's statist control-freakery needing to know everything about the applicant). Its no wonder that people are reluctant to take on such work if they are penalised for doing it: the risk involved in moving from benefit into work is too high. A phrase I used to hear when buying a house, or a car was "cost to change". Well, the cost to change from welfare to work for those in the system is currently way too high.

Enter the immigrant worker, who works outside of the benefit system. He lives in an overcrowded rented house, so that his living expenses are low. He will work for as short a period as necessary, for as low a wage as necessary, as he doesn't care about the minimum wage. He is outside the system, and is therefore flexible about working practices. Thats why he gets the job.

This is an area where the benefits system needs to move from the nineties into the new milennia. It needs to change in order to allow workers the flexibility to take on these temporary roles. It needs to allow them to keep that money they earn, and then go seamlessly straight back onto jobseekers, continue to receive tax credits, housing benefit, and council tax benefit without penalty. It also needs to acknowledge that it's a disgrace that people earning the minimum wage are taxed. People earning the legal minimum wage should not be taxed. The threshold for tax should be set at the minimum wage, plus a small amount, so that the amount of paperwork is minimal and there is no disincentive to drop in and out of work as required.

A seamless approach is the only way to incentivise people at the low-paid end of the spectrum back into work. The current system disincentivises people from getting back into work, because there is too much risk. The amount of risk and cost involved in changing from welfare to work needs to be significantly reduced as a priority in order to get people back into work.

This is where I am: fit, able and willing to work, but getting nowhere fast. I'm understanding rapidly that the minimum wage is a luxury, but is something I may get penalised for if I take on a role paying less and the authorities find out. I get no jobseekers, nor housing benefit, nor council tax benefit, because my wife and daughter work. Despite my wife not earning enough to pay the rent, let alone other bills. Despite my daughter moving back into the home because her debts piled up until she couldn't sustain their payment.
My life is constantly worrying about which bailiff's letter to acknowledge and pay first, paid by loans from parents that kill me every time I take them. I'm 46 and should be standing on my own 2 feet, but the system doesn't allow it, because I MUST comply with their rules and regulations. I'm regularly suicidal, because what's the point in living in this situation. I had pride, I had good jobs and a career, but New Labour's promises of help for those that needed it didn't materialise when it came to providing services for my autistic son. Now sometimes I think it'd be better if I went for a long swim and didn't come back.
I spit at those in authority and those that enforce it, because I know what the want: they want me to be dependant on them for everything and they want me to be beholden to them if I earn money.
Its a national disgrace and someone, somewhere should put a stop to it. But finding the who is an impossibility in a political system that doesn't give two shits to those like me at the bottom of the pile. We are statistics, to be pushed, progressed, oppressed, manipulated and promoted for political gain. I am the underclass.

UPDATE:

Fraser Nelson puts more meat on the bones of his original article here.