I was born, years and years ago, oop north. I don't, sadly, say in "t'north" as I might have done had circumstances were different in my life, but I had parents who largely insisted on the benefits of good communication. I also spent some time being raised in London where people said "didn't I?" at the end of sentences. Or more accurately, "dint eye?"
Anyway I might, in other circumstances when the age of finding work approached, have had to find work in some steelworks or down a pit in Yorkshire. Had I stayed in Manchester longer than I did, possibly looked for work in a cotton mill. Maybe even in the pit again, as these things were on both sides of the Pennines. As it happened I didn't, but even as I set out to do other things in life those mill and steel jobs were beginning to disappear and pits were starting to be closed. (By the way, the next time someone tells you that it was Thatcher wot closed the mines, you might want to point out that far, far more were closed under that shining example of the Labour movement, Harold Wilson. No, don't bother: the left never likes truth so save your breath.)
But as my 16th birthday approached I was one of the many young men everywhere who were turning their thoughts to work -- as opposed to having a career as many were similar to my family in that they were largely working class -- I had choices. It wasn't a question of not having a job; it was more which sort of job did you want. It wasn't unusual either for young people to be offered a better job than the lower paid one in which they started out at a company if they exhibited some aptitude.
But, there were jobs. Not always great jobs, but secure because there was a demand and demand meant people wanted you to keep on doing what you did and in turn, kept on paying you. Maybe it involved moving a shuttle on a loom or beating metal or hewing coal, but there was paid employment. Like all employment, it took time to learn to do it efficiently and even safely, but you had years ahead of you to master the skills required.
There were issues of working conditions and pay and fairness in the workplace but apart from wildcat strikes spurred by those who thought despotic Russia was the pinnacle of human love, they were issues that could be resolved with give and take on both sides.
Then, those jobs we thought were here forever began to disappear. Some were replaced by the new demands of a changing world, but most of the old bash and mash tasks went away. Better observers of life than me will point out the trend was turning away from manufacturing and more to serving, and as leisure opportunities increased there was a greater demand for retail and entertainment and -- significantly -- people who would be prepared to work all hours serving others coffee and asking if they wanted fries with that.
Now this brings me closer to the point of this: one of jobs, and with it, immigration. The two are inextricably intertwined. After all, you wouldn't travel miles from home and not be sure there'd be something there waiting for you. Unless you come for the benefits (which may or may not be substantial) you are going to want some sort of income from, say, working.
I heard on the radio this morning a man saying -- ahead of the expected influx of Romanians and Bulgarians as soon as 2014 begins -- that the NHS was reliant on foreign (including non-EU) workers coming here to help out. He also pointed out that at airports at four in the morning there weren't any white anglo-saxon youths working behind the counter of coffee shops. The late (or very early) staff were more likely to be from third-world countries. Therefore the man reasoned, there was a need for bringing in labour from overseas if only because our feckless yoof couldn't be arsed to do any of it. (By the way, the last bit is my rough interpretation of his words. Don't blame him.)
The man had a point: we are indeed very dependent on people coming here and filling jobs we can't do. This however dodges the point some of us can already grasp. You see, the trouble is not with the needed workers but with the ones who come here to do the jobs the people already here can do. More, there is going to be a huge problem with all their dependents arriving too. A future problem we are making for ourselves.
I freely admit that if I had to take job in some parts of the world as much as I'd miss my family, I wouldn't take them there. Like it or not, there are some atrocious places in the world where women are very much an inferior species: I could not contemplate taking my family with me because of any potential risk to the females. Anyway, this isn't about me. It is about the men who come here to work and bring their kids and even their wives who may be quite likely to bear more children.
This is the future problem, and one that won't go away any time soon. At some point the three or four kids of a newly arrived immigrant are going to want jobs. But those jobs aren't there right now, and as we automate and trim our own production facilities or become more reliant on cheap Chinese imports, there are only so many jobs going to be available. The job filled by one man needs to be expanded to allow for his offspring to have work. Can't see that happening, can you?
That coffee shop at an airport will need only so many staff, and more coffee shops opening up and offering 24 hour service may not be the answer.
If I look at the kids going to my local school I can see (and hear) an increasing number of non-native English little ones. Quite a mix, one way or another. Good luck to them, but as those numbers grow they are going to get restless when job and career time comes around in a few years' time. For now, dad's job and various benefits may help tide things over but there are no guarantees ahead, despite what politicians may pretend. If the kids get restless (and experience has shown young males can get restless in all sorts of unhappy ways) then the outlook isn't good.
Of course, newly-arrived dad may eventually take his family 'back home' but then again, no guarantees. Especially if there is free money and family services on offer here. Free money which has to be found from taxing a shrinking work force.
There is also, by the way, the problem of perceived 'heritage' and cultural differences. A lot of second and third generation immigrants have sometimes rejected the British way of life and claim they want to be true to their roots, which can mean they demand their roots springing up here. It is not always a smooth process or an untroubled desire to make what they think they left behind ought to be here on the streets of British cities.
All this however is for the future. Today is December 31 and tomorrow a new future dawns. It may even dawn under a placid sky. I wouldn't bet on it though.
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