Immigration and wealth

[mtbc]

Living in Aberdeen, seeing the grand things around the city centre, it was notable that many of them dated from the Victorian era. I suspected it to be no coincidence that the Victorians saw the height of the British Empire's exploitation of its colonies. With the wealth of others, we built our shiny things. The bridge I walk on to work is nineteenth-century.

In the meantime, Britain declines. Local councils now struggle to provide even basic services. The health system is becoming several kinds of joke, despite the dedication of those working within it. Even those graduating with good undergraduate degrees typically can't get a job that pays well enough for them to be soon on the road to buying a house within reach of the job.

Furthermore, our population is aging. As we end up with fewer working people, and more people needing assistance, the situation can only worsen. Given that our history puts us somewhat in others' debt, I would like to imagine that we could kill two birds with one stone: welcome young families from the British Commonwealth so they can live and work here, providing services and paying tax, ideally building new towns and cities too, while probably also sending some money back home to their families.

Of course, what I describe is not far off the immigration policy we had between, er, around WWII and Margaret Thatcher. We've seen how the Windrush generation has been treated since. Further, populist anti-immigrant rhetoric abounds so we're not about to be saved by welcoming workers from overseas. So, what's the plan? We could make domestic families have lots of babies (not that they can afford anywhere to put them) or we can erode the health service far enough to stop the old people from living for too long.

Looking at the high prices, poor services, and xenophobia, I'd be happy to self-deport. However, for the meantime there are kids in education that I don't want to disrupt. Once everybody graduates, I wouldn't fault any of us for moving elsewhere. In the meantime, I can continue to hope and vote for change, both in the UK and the US.

Comments

[aldabra]

We could start by making secure, affordable housing available to domestic families and see if they start having children on their own. A average first time buyer age of 35 totally doesn't work if you're female.

Assuming we wanted to solve the problems. I think the current transnational billionaire aspiration is to have smaller, poorer, ill-educated populations here and to pivot the wealth extraction to the BRICS, now that both our people and our governments are broke. The profitable use of Europe now is permanent war with Russia.

[vyvyanx]

I agree with you very much. It seems the height of immorality for Reform to say they want to encourage "native" people to create new people to prop up the economy while paying regimes like the Taliban to take back asylum seekers to torture and execute. (It is of course not just Reform who promote such things; Georgia Miloni, for instance, has been trying to persuade "native" Italians to have more babies at the same time as violently expelling migrants.)

I'm also very anxious about the direction of public, political and judicial attitudes towards trans people. The US seems to be signalling a possible future here; not content with denying the reality of trans people's existence(0), denying trans people healthcare(1), expelling trans people from their jobs(2), rewriting history to erase trans(3) (and bi(4)) people, stopping collecting statistics on hate crime against trans people(5) and preventing trans-ally journalists from doing their jobs(6), it is now apparently within the Overton window for public commentators to call for trans people to be detained in mental institutions(7) or used as cannon fodder in war(8). The current government here is not quite at that point, but seems more interested in courting "gender-critical" activists (some of whom are, after all, multi-millionaires, who may donate to the party in future(9)) than protecting the rights of trans people.

I would leave the country now, rather than wait for Reform to get in and continue with the US trajectory, but I can't afford it.

(0) https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/01/21/trump-signs-executive-order-proclaiming-there-are-only-two-sexes-trans/
(1) https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/06/18/tennessee-supreme-court-healthcare-ruling/
(2) https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/07/01/trans-us-military-ban-deplore-horrific/ also https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/08/08/us-air-force-trans-troops-early-retirement-benefits/
(3) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cglywwn29n6o
(4) https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/07/11/stonewall-bisexual-monument-website/
(5) https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/05/09/trans-violent-crime-us-government/
(6) https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/04/10/white-house-pronouns-refusing-to-speak-to-journalists/
(7) https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/08/29/joey-mannarino-trans-minneapolis-shooting/
(8) https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/08/07/alex-stein-texas-trans-bathroom-bill/
(9) https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/24/labour-gender-transition-recognition-process-trans

[shimmerwine]

If you could, where would you go?

[vyvyanx]

Mind you, on a brighter note, this might help with some of your expenses? (I recall you posting about commuting costs a while ago.)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98lzygd5vjo