There are numerous news stories about people trying to cross the Channel into the UK illegally. Can someone explain what the motive is? I gather these are illegal immigrants from third-world countries, but if they already made it as far as France, what’s in Britain that makes it worth the cost and danger of crossing the Channel?
Some immigrants are from nations where there are significant numbers of their brethren and who are legal, this makes it easier to dissappear.
Many other EU nations also have serious I.I problems more so than the UK and many do indeed remain in France, Germany and Italy, I.I’s try to reach communities with which they will feel most empathy, so we wouldn’t get many Algerians, they would try to stay in France, and Turks generally head for Germany.
We do not have identity cards, and I believe that some other European nations do, which again makes it easier to dissappear.
We have a relatively generous benefits system which will support them when their applications for asylum are being heard, and the application system together with its appeals is a lengthy one which makes for longer stays than in some other EU nations.
Our application system is possibly more liberal than some other EU nations.
We have a long history of colonialism which means that there are a great many potential avenues for legitimate citizenship to be explored.
I also think that there is a misplaced belief that somehow our streets are ‘paved with gold’ and that maybe we are more tolerant and liberal than we really are.
This article explains it pretty well (admittedly casdave covered most of the bases).
I have no support for this, but I suspect that there is also an element of just keeping going.
As the article says, once they get to France they have little chance of work etc. Presumably, the situation was pretty much the same in any EU countries that they had previously come through. Whatever the situation in the UK, it can’t be any worse than France, and the mainland UK is relatively easy to get into (compared to Ireland).
Having said that, I’m sure that the lack of ID restrictions, relatively loose asylum laws and large black economy are the major pulls.
The Guardian article is spot-on. There are also some other reasons:
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The UK is English speaking. Many of the migrants actually have educated, middle class backgrounds (by Afghan, Iranian, etc standards) and know English, so they have a better chance of getting a job.
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The UK economy is stronger and unemployment lower. There is real demand in Southern England for labor. Without the migrants (illegal Chinese in containers or legitimate political refugees from Iraq etc) there would be no-one to wash dishes in London hotels or pick fruit in the orchards of Kent.
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There are already quite big communities of various ethnic groups in the UK. Many of these migrants have family and friends already there.