Hi Folks,

I don't want to take sides in the "ethnicity/immigration" debate
which has been going on, but I would like to draw attention to
what strikes me as a potentially grave aspect.

It is certainly one where the gathering of good statistical
information would be very important.

I refer to a story in this evening's Cambridge Evening News.
Its context is the large number of (mainly Polish) immigrant
workers in the agricultural sector in Fenland. It starts:

  Dyskryminacja (Discrimination)

  JOB-seekers in Cambridgeshire are being turned away
  because they do not speak Polish, an MP claims.

  Malcolm Moss, MP for North East Cambridgeshire,
  revealed constituents had told him they had been
  refused work in the fens on the grounds they would
  not fit in with other factory workers, who were all
  migrant workers from Poland.

  He slammed the practice as "obvious discrimination".

  He said: "A woman came to my surgery and said:
  'My daughter went to an agency to get a job and was
  told by the gang-master: 'If you don't speak Polish
  I can't put you on the assembly line, because they all
  speak Polish. They won't accept you, and you won't be
  able to communicate with them anyway.'

For the rest, see:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/region_wide/
2007/06/16/bcb2e637-88ca-4d9c-b7f6-9ddd3d5088dc.lpf

[all one line]; equivalently at: http://tinyurl.com/26u8pb

Further down the article:

  Replying to a special debate on EU migrants in
  Cambridgeshire in the House of Commons, Home Office
  Minister Joan Ryan said a special task force had
  been set up to address the issues raised.

The debate in question would seem to be:

  Hansard
  13 Jun 2007 : Column 817
  EU Migrants (Peterborough and Cambridgeshire)
  4.4 pm

which begins on

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/
cm070613/debtext/70613-0012.htm

[all one line]; equivalently at: http://tinyurl.com/2525oc

The debate continues to Column 844, so is quite substantial.
In the earlier parts there are several reference to Govt
statistics, not all complimentary ... for example:

  [Stewart Jackson, Peterborough]:
  It bears repeating that the Government's estimate of
  the likely level of migration at the time, which was
  reiterated by the Prime Minister, was between 13,000
  and 15,000. That estimate has been dwarfed by the actual
  numbers. According to figures released in July last year,
  427,000 migrants from EU member states

13 Jun 2007 : Column 818

  have registered to work here since May 2004, and most
  reliable estimates put the figure at between 600,000 and
  700,000.

  [...]

  Mr. Vara [NW Cambs]: I am grateful to my neighbour for
  giving way. Does he agree that we are simply talking
  about figures that the Government are aware of, and
  that most commentators agree that a large number of
  people are not in the estimate  system? The actual
  figures are therefore much larger.

And so on ...

As far as "taking sides" may be concerned, and referring to the
incident described in the CEN article, I do find it sinister if
it is the case that immigrant workers (to whom I have no objection
as such) can displace native workers by virtue of speaking a
language that most natives will have no grasp of, and little
hope of learning!

Best wishes to all,
Ted.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[log in to unmask]>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 16-Jun-07                                       Time: 22:26:55
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