UK home secretary warns about social consequences of mass migration
UK home secretary has warned that high levels of immigration make impossible building a cohesive society.
Addressing the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Theresa May said UK does not need net migration at current levels adding the net economic effect is close to zero at best.
She used her speech to argue that mass migration is not in the national interest. May went on saying that mass migration leads to the undercutting of wages for low-paid workers and joblessness for thousands of others.
Her statements come some weeks after a report found that migration to Britain increased by 24 percent in 2014.
The number of migrants entering the UK rose by 108,000 to 558,000, according to a report published by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) last month.
Net migration to the UK was 330,000 in the year to March, far surpassing the government’s goal of reducing migration to below 100,000, reported the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
“When immigration is too high, when the pace of change is too fast, it’s impossible to build a cohesive society. It’s difficult for schools and hospitals and core infrastructure like housing and transport to cope,” she said.
May stressed that “We need to build 210,000 new homes every year to deal with rising demand. We need to find 900,000 new school places by 2024. And there are thousands of people who have been forced out of the labor market, still unable to find a job.”
She also stressed that Britain will never "in a thousand years" agree to a common European immigration policy to deal with the surging number of refugees fleeing to the continent.
May said Europe's immigration crisis "can only be resolved by nation states taking responsibility themselves and protecting their own national borders."
Prime Minister David Cameron said he agreed with May's comments.
The UK has pledged to take up to 20,000 refugees over the next five years. Critics are urging the government to take more refugees.
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