OPINION
February 12th, 2024
I feel that it is interesting to start with a quote from Enoch Powell (yes THAT Enoch Powell).
We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to be permitting the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents, who are for the most part the material of the future growth of the immigrant descended population. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre. So insane are we that we actually permit unmarried persons to immigrate for the purpose of founding a family with spouses and fiancées whom they have never seen.
Source Powell, Enoch (1969). Freedom and Reality. Kingswood: Elliot Right Way Books. ISBN 0-7160-0541-7.p282
He was commenting on the rights of new immigrants to later participate in arranged marriages and also bring more family members to the UK.
He further commented,
For reasons which they could not comprehend, and in pursuance of a decision by default, on which they were never consulted, they found themselves made strangers in their own country. They found their wives unable to obtain hospital beds in childbirth, their children unable to obtain school places, their homes and neighbourhoods changed beyond recognition, their plans and prospects for the future defeated; at work they found that employers hesitated to apply to the immigrant worker the standards of discipline and competence required of the native-born worker; they began to hear, as time went by, more and more voices which told them that they were now the unwanted. On top of this, they now learn that a one-way privilege is to be established by Act of Parliament; a law which cannot, and is not intended to, operate to protect them or redress their grievances, is to be enacted to give the stranger, the disgruntled and the agent provocateur the power to pillory them for their private actions.
Source Ibid p286.
He commented that, although many immigrants wanted to integrate, he felt that the majority did not. This is especially relevant where there are strong differences in culture. He thought that some immigrants would have vested interests in promoting racial and religious differences.
with a view to the exercise of actual domination, first over fellow-immigrants and then over the rest of the population.
Source Ibid p287-8.
This was all stated fifty-five years ago. The problem has been not only the huge scale of immigration but also the complete inability of successive governments to manage the process and ensure that the locals’ needs and concerns were adequately addressed. It is this contempt for the views and interests of the local population (including today the thousands of 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants), whose interests are being compromised by the mass immigration that is causing problems. The whole process has been badly managed by successive governments.
This has had unforeseen impacts on areas of the economy and social structure: “The law of unintended consequences”.
Updated figures show that in the year ended June 2023 illegal entries into the UK were 52,530. 85% of these came via small boats. Almost under the radar is the fact that LEGAL immigration has been booming. The boats are the visible part of immigration and offend the British sense of fair play by queue jumping and not being subject to due diligence. These mainly male incomers are disappearing into the community or being accommodated in hotels at a cost of £6,000,000 per day. This is a cause for concern to the security services.
The latest figures show NET immigration of 672,000 in the year ending June 2023. This comprised approximately 1,180,000 long-term immigrants and 508,000 emigrations. These people have been issued with visas with normal checks being carried out.
In his wisdom, Tony Blair, possibly the worst and most devious Prime Minister of recent times (yes, even worse than Boris Johnson), encouraged immigration into the UK and at the same time decided that more young people should have a university education. This was a philosophy conceptualised by John Major and embraced and implemented by Tony Blair.
In 1950, 3.4% of school leavers in the UK went to university. By the early 1960s this had risen to 4% and by the late 1970s was 14%. In 1990 it had reached 19%. Today (2023) it is 35.8% and by including other further education qualifications this figure rises to over 50%. It is apparent that the increasing number of students couldn’t be funded by the old system of grants and free tuition, hence student loans.
Free tuition was abolished in 1998. Currently a years’ tuition fees are a maximum of £9,250 (it is rare to find a course charging below the maximum). In addition, grants were available as a contribution towards living costs. In 1997, student grants of £1,710 per annum were abolished by the Labour Government.
With the increase in students came an increase in universities and an increase in subjects offered at the universities. This was achieved by converting (sorry, transitioning) polytechnics and Colleges of Further Education into ‘universities’. The increased demand caused an increase in places, but these are now being filled by overseas students.
Student migration to the UK reached an all-time high in 2022, as more than 484,000 visas were issued.
About 134,000 visas were issued to student dependents in 2022, eight times more than in 2019.
In the 2021/22 academic year, approximately 680,000 international students were enrolled in UK higher education, making up 24% of all HE students.
Students from Nigeria were much more likely to bring dependants with them than other top nationalities, with an average of more than one dependant (1.02) per student in 2022.
Most international students in the UK come from outside the EU – 92% in the 2021/22 academic year, compared to 73% five years before. In 2021/22, the top country of origin for new international students was China (100,000 students, 26% of the total), followed by India (87,000, 23%) and Nigeria (33,000, 9%).
From 2009/10 to 2019/20, UK universities increasingly relied on students from China, with their number growing by over 180% ). By the 2019/20 academic year, Chinese students made up a third of all new international students, though this fell to 26% in 2021/22. Reliance on Chinese students is not unique to the UK. In 2021/22, they were also the top nationality among international students in the US, making up 31% of the total, and in Australia, with 21% of all foreign students.
Recently, much of the increase in international student numbers in the UK was driven by two countries of origin – India and Nigeria. Between 2018/19 and 2021/22, the number of students from these countries grew by 375% and 489%, respectively.
Indian student numbers declined from 2011/12 to 2018/19, possibly due to the closing of the post-study work visa route in 2011. As shown in Figure 9, Indian students are significantly more likely than others to work in Britain after graduation. In 2021, the government introduced a similar post-study work route, the Graduate Visa, which may have played some role in the recent increase in Indian and other international students. However, the reversal in Indian student numbers was already clear by 2019/20, before the policy change, and continued throughout the pandemic.
The number of Nigerian students rose sharply after 2020, following a period of decline. Research has found several likely explanations for this rise, including political and economic insecurity at home, relative ease of access to British universities, and the hope of obtaining work and settling in the UK long-term. As previously noted, Nigerian students are particularly likely to bring dependants to the UK (an average of 1.02 dependants per student in 2022, compared to 0.28 among all international students), which is consistent with plans to stay in the UK longer-term.
A record number of former students – almost 73,000 – extended their visas in 2022 through the new Graduate route.
In 2021/22, more than a fifth of British universities’ total income came from the tuition fees of international students.
Source. The Migration Observatory, University of Oxford. 24 January 2024.
We now come to the tricky subject of how many universities there are in the UK.
According to SI-UK there are 166; according to UKUNI there are 143. Some of the institutions are, without being unkind, a little obscure, and some cater extensively for an overseas intake.
In 1952 there were 19 Universities in the whole of the UK,
1962, 24
1969, 45
1992, 84
2012, 127
2022, 140
The questions are did the number of universities increase because of higher demand?
Did the number of students increase because of the increase in the availability of universities?
Did the number of universities reach saturation point and need to take on increasing overseas students to fill the places and the funding deficit?
Domestic students pay £9,250 per year, with overseas students paying anything up to £40,000 per year. Scottish students at Scottish universities pay no fees, English applicants pay fees to attend a Scottish university.
It has been disclosed that some universities require lower A-level grades from overseas applicants than domestic applicants – with some Universities requiring 3 grade A passes from domestic students and 3 grade C passes from International.
We now arrive at the main issue. There has been a huge increase in immigration. Has this been caused by international students, who are allowed to be accompanied by family members?
Restricting the flow of immigration into the UK would put the universities under severe financial pressure and some would go bankrupt.
However, the increase in immigration is putting severe pressure on the infrastructure of the country and results in a severe change in the demographics and social and cultural makeup of the country.
We have huge problems in the education sector, huge demands on UK fiscal requirements to fund the infrastructure and influx of immigrants and huge demands on the social cohesion of the country. Added to this are the problems associated with illegal immigration and there is a recipe for major problems in the coming years. Goodness knows what will happen if Labour gets elected for five years later this year.
As I said earlier, this demonstrates the law of unintended consequences, especially from trying to rapidly increase education opportunities.
Thank you, Tony Blair.