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Migrant cap threat to public services

Wednesday 28th April 2010

Conservative party plans for immigration could be "a recipe for disaster" for public services, should David Cameron become prime minister, the union UNISON has warned.

The party's plans to place an annual cap on new immigrants would damage key areas, such as health and social care, which depend on migrants.

It also refutes the "scaremongering" statistics about rising population that fuel such proposals.

UNISON's national development manager for migrant workers Greg Thomson said: "The Conservative policy on capping immigration would have little, if any effect on population, because it does not apply to immigrants from Europe - which is where a lot of the most recent immigrants have come from.

"And the number of immigrants coming from outside Europe is already very limited.

"However, for UNISON members the effect of a cap could be far more dramatic. Where migrants are coming to fill skilled vacancies that cannot be filled by local people, stopping them because a cap or quota has been reached would simply leave the work undone.

"In many of our public services, such as health and social care, this would put extra strain on our members, and mean that some of the most vulnerable people in our society are not being properly provided for."

Thomson added: "Many population doom mongers claim that immigration puts too great a strain on our public services. But many of our public services could not function without migrants. An arbitrary limit on immigration, which pays no attention to service needs for skilled workers, is a recipe for disaster."

Mike Jones

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