"The country's full up," said Sushila Nath as she shopped for saris in one of the most ethnically diverse areas of Britain's second-largest city. "We've got no proper hospitals. Everything is very crowded. There are too many people coming here," added the 60-year-old Nath who left India to settle in Birmingham 37 years ago. In some parts of the United Kingdom, even the immigrants are crying out for a stop to immigration.
Fears that Britain's vital public services are being overwhelmed by new arrivals have pushed the issue up the political agenda as Tony Blair vies for a third term on May 5.
While the prime minister is expected to win, polls show that immigration and asylum are his Labour party's weakest link and the opposition Conservatives' strongest card.
This month's conviction of an Algerian failed asylum seeker of an al Qaeda poison plot has given ammunition to the Conservatives, who accuse Blair of running a chaotic system and playing fast and loose with the nation's security.
Officially, Labour says it does not know how many people are living illegally in Britain although one leaked government-commissioned report estimated up to half a million.
Labour's Roger Godsiff, running for re-election to parliament for the Birmingham area of Sparkbrook and Small Heath - where immigrants account for about 80 percent of the population - is candid about the extent of illegal immigration.
"I have officially about 73,000 electors in my constituency but you could easily add another 10,000 who are 'non-people'. Provided they stay out of the hair of officialdom, they can live here for the rest of their lives," he told Reuters.
Sari stores, Middle Eastern jewellers and Islamic bookshops line the commercial streets of a constituency that Godsiff calls a "patchwork quilt". But many residents complain about a tide of Somalian asylum seekers who they say are living off benefits.
"I'm between jobs," said 28-year-old Ahmed Abdi, using a common euphemism for unemployment as he mingled with fellow Somalians at a coffee shop down the road.
Voters rank asylum and immigration first or second only to health in importance and most want tighter controls, polls show.
Britain's 60 million population is projected to grow by 6.1 million by 2031, of which 84 percent will be due to the assumed level of immigration, says independent watchdog Migration Watch UK.
Conservative leader Michael Howard - himself the son of immigrants - pledges annual quotas on immigrants and asylum seekers, more border police and an offshore centre to process asylum claims.
Blair opposes quotas, saying immigrants are needed to fill jobs Britons will not do.
But while Labour accuses the Conservatives of playing the race card, it has unveiled its own immigration curbs that some critics say are only a fraction less reactionary.
Like the Conservatives, Labour plans to introduce an Australian-style points system, favouring skilled workers over willing labourers while genuine refugees may be sent home after five years if their home country is deemed safe.
Immigration inflames passions in this densely populated island nation that has a chequered colonial past and a long history of welcoming migrants.
In one of the most infamous speeches of the last century, Conservative politician Enoch Powell sparked outrage in 1968 when he forecast rivers of blood from inter-ethnic strife.
Comments
Comments are closed.