Sanctissima wrote:Olivaero wrote:I would say "None!" but I'm certain I'm in a massive minority. I'd go one step further and say it's actually a fairly ridiculous goal to try and limit immigration to a simple numerical figure when the population of the whole world keeps on growing and the environmental situation is deteriorating.
Eh, it depends on the economy in question, and the current population demographic. You can't just have total open borders, especially if you're a rich and highly developed country, since that would be unrealistic. People would continually flock in, and eventually it would become unsustainable.
In the case of the UK, quite a lot of its economy, like most of Western Europe, relies on cheap labour from migrant workers (not exactly the same situation as with actual immigrants, I know, but hear me out). As such, it inevitably needs to maintain or otherwise keep a steady influx of these workers, since its economy would otherwise need to be restructured, lest it implode on itself. With the possibility of the UK officially leaving the EU, this is going to increasingly become a necessity, since many European expats working in the UK under the terms of Schengen will likely be sent home packing. That being said, even with the increasing need, you can't have too much cheap labour, or domestic unemployment becomes untenable and instability ensues. There needs to be a bit of give and take.
The population of the entire world is unsustainable we have to make it work some way, there may be a time when we're "Full up" but it's not yet, our construction industry has just been sitting around with it's thumb in it's areshole for a long period of time. There needs to be innovations in suporting large populations of humans on small parcels of land and the best place for that innovation to occur is in a first world country and it will only happen if that country is feeling the pressure of lots of immigrants. Immigrants are by and large productive workers, most people are really as long as they are welcomed with open arms and given a fair chance. Yes too much cheap labour will also be a problem just like climate change will be in a few years time but that's true throughout the world and we'll also need a solution to that and the earlier we get that the better. So basically what I'm saying is that there is no way to avoid the problems that large numbers of immigrants bring over the long term.
