Martin Deutsch/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nc-nd)
Migration is a critical issue in the UK’s EU referendum debate. We’ve seen poll after poll which shows that it rates top in voters’ current concerns. The European Union has ignored these concerns year after year, and the result has been larger numbers of people who want to take back control of UK borders and move to a fairer, non-discriminatory immigration policy unlike the one we see currently being forced upon the UK by EU treaties.
Understanding the importance of migration to EU policy formulation is simple, not complicated. Migration is easily understood by this: in the short run, mass uncontrolled migration affects incentives. In the long run, it powers demographics. The UK’s current migration policy makes for a borderless Britain, where immediate access to UK housing, public services and labour markets is open, without notice of intention to come, to hundreds of millions EU citizens. This impacts economic incentives across the board in the short run and completely changes our country’s demographics in the not-so-long-run. As a result this has slowly but surely become a bigger issue as EU migration has increased.
