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Immigration - one of the known unknowns

There are, of course, unknowns that are known as well as unknowns that are unknown.

Immigration, however, is a policy area where we really don't know what is happening. What the government think is the case, local government know not to be true. In the mean time it is massively complex.

At the same time we have people emigrating from the UK. This leads to a situation where a policy area that is very important to many people is debated with almost no understanding of the reality.

C'est la vie.

We discussed some of the aspects today at Health Scrutiny COmmittee. The health, housing and employment aspects of immigration are all interrelated and all operate on the basis of slightly separate rules.

We have the complexity, for example, of destitution plus which means that a failed asylum seeker who is on tablet for depression gets support from the state, but one who is not depressed does not.

The complexity that I think best demonstrates the absurdity of the system is the tale from Leicestershire from the TUC. This relates to legal portugese migrants paying for forged Brazilian passports to prove that they are illegal immigrants so they can get work from employers who want illegal workers so they can avoid paying tax and employing people with rights.

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