Poles (and others) amongst The Few…

This message from Hope Not Hate is spot on: immigration can bring positive as well as negative effects.

We are fortunate, today, to live in a country whose freedom was protected in the summer of 1940 by the extraordinary heroism and sacrifice of The Few. We should also not forget that some of The Few were young men who’d escaped the darkness that was settling across Europe, who’d fled to Britain to continue their fight for freedom even after their own countries were overrun by tyranny.

And we should honour them and all the others who fought in the Battle of Britain and the other battles that secured for us the blessings of liberty and free government during WW2 not merely in Remembrance services but in continuing to articulate in favour of freedom and the free society that they fought to protect.

In my view, one of the key issues to immigration policy is ensuring that the right institutions and norms predominate that encourage good outcomes for all. Those are free markets, individual rights under the rule of law, low taxes, self-reliance and self-help, hard-work, and so on.  These stand in marked contrast to those norms and institutions that serve merely to create a culture of dependency and entitlement, which breed a sense of resentment and unfairness against those (newly-arrived) welfare recipients who are perceived as ‘queue-jumping’.

Immigration policy is difficult but the failure to disentangle it from the need for fundamental welfare reform is not helpful.  This picture, shared by Hope Not Hate, powerfully focuses oour attention on how migrants can and do contribute to their host society—even to the extent of risking (and sometimes losing) their lives in its defence.