Why The Generalisation?
Hello,
So I’m an Indian migrant who has been living in this country since 2010, came here on a work visa, settled with ILR now. I’m earning well into the higher rate of income tax. Came to the UK because the job opportunities for my field in India were very poor compared to here. The UK gave me opportunities and a quality of life I likely wouldn’t have had otherwise.
I have parents and family back home, and probably would retire back in India where the rest of my family live. But this will be a good few decades away.
One thing I struggle to understand politically is the claim that “most migrants come here to live off the system” or don’t contribute. I hear this quite often from Reform supporters and from Nigel Farage himself.
But when I look at government statistics for some migrant groups, particularly Indians and Chinese, the picture seems very different.
My question is why Reform sees all immigrants as bad? I often hear Reform supporters say “It’s not about the colour of your skin”. I’ve heard many reform supporters including Nigel Farage saying that “majority of migrants come here to leach the system, and don’t work”. Now you may say that you’re fine with hard working migrants that get along, but the majority don’t?
Since I’m from India, I’ve taken some statistics from GOV.UK on “Indian ethnic group: facts and figures”, published in 2019. All my information is taken directly from the government website.
“At all key stages, Indian pupils’ attainment was above the national average. Indian pupils had a higher attainment than White British pupils but not as high as Chinese pupils”
“76% of Indian pupils met the expected standard in key stage 2 reading, writing and maths, compared with 65% of White British pupils. This was the second highest percentage of all ethnic groups, after Chinese pupils (81%).”
“62.0% of Indian pupils got a ‘strong pass’ in English and maths GCSE, compared with 42.7% of White British pupils.
96% of Indian students went into further education(such as A levels), compared with 85% of White British students. This was the second highest percentage out of all ethnic groups after Chinese students (97%). (England, 2016/17)
15.3% of Indian students got at least 3 As or higher at A level, compared with 10.9% of White British pupils. This was one of the highest percentages of all ethnic groups”
“Indian pupils were over 6 times less likely to be temporarily excluded from school than White British pupils. 0.84% were temporarily excluded, compared with 5.23% of White British pupils. (England, 2016/17)
Indian pupils were 5 times less likely to be permanently excluded than White British pupils. 0.02% were permanently excluded, compared with 0.10% of White British pupils. (England, 2016/17)”
“76% of Indian 16 to 64 year olds were in employment, the same employment rate as for White British people and the joint second highest rate out of all ethnic groups.”
“5 years after graduating, 86.3% of both Indian and White graduates were in sustained education or employment (the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups). On average, Indian graduates were earning £28,500 a year and White graduates were earning £26,100. (England 2016/17)”
“43% of Indian households had a total income of £34,700 a year or more (before housing costs were deducted), the second highest percentage out of all ethnic groups. This was a similar percentage as White British households (42%). (UK, 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 combined)”
“Indian people were less likely to be arrested compared with White British people. There were 6.7 arrests for every 1,000 Indian people, the third lowest out of all ethnic groups. This compares with 10.2 arrests for every 1,000 White British people.”
These are some of the statistics from the website, what I’ve noticed is that south asian and chinese ethnic groups are generally no worse than ethnic white British population when it came to crimes, and are eating on par, if not higher when it came to employment statistics.
Yet I’m hearing “they come here to commit crimes, turn our country upside down, and drain the government”. Just don’t get it, even Nigel Farage claimed that the majority of migrants don’t work or contribute to society, yet the data shows otherwise
I totally understand the concern about small boat migrants, they absolutely do not have a place in this country, but when people talk about migrants broadly as criminals, non-workers, or people who “drain the country”, it genuinely confuses me because the data for many migrant groups doesn’t seem to support that.
Thanks