General News Commonwealth Freedom of Movement

It might be a good idea. =) If there's a demand for this (from all countries), then why not?

The only thing might be that UK citizenship might become even more interesting, since then you have movement in the EU and between Australia, Canada and New Zealand. I'm not aware whether this will make people more likely to get to live in the UK, but I won't be surprised if that happens due to the increased benefits.

 

Surely you would have to allow free movement between all countries of the commonwealth and not just those four?

 

Due to Australian immigration restrictions this will never go ahead. While immigration of skilled, wealthy and high demand people overall is good, the free movement of people within the EU does have a negative impact on the wealthier countries. People move and claim resources from the state they haven't paid for, send some of their wages home so the host country gets back no VAT or duty from that money then all of a sudden you have to provide more resources to more people, but it all has to be done with national insurance and tax contributions from less people. While the budget the Chancellor lays out has a larger influence on the growth of the economy than immigration, we still find ourselves paying out to people who have barely paid in, not forgetting the tax threshold is now over £10k, it decreases the amount people pay for what they get.

Given the majority of the British public want controlled immigration, I cannot see this flying. Though I do believe if you have served The Crown, either as embassy staff or in the military you should be subject to less criteria to move here.

 

Definitely, that's why I wanted to point it out. =) The UK has a history with migration, and it's not really viewed as desired by some (if not most).

And about NZ, I think you're right there.

Sorry, that is wrong. You can find evidence that points out otherwise easily:

http://www.oecd.org/migration/mig/OECD Migration Policy Debates Numero 2.pdf

UK and European migration map: Why immigration is good for the economy and immigrants aren't stealing British jobs | City A.M.

 

The problem with immigration data is that it is a blanket figure and the fact that the majority of the UKs richest people are immigrants, so we have a situation where the equality gap between immigrants is actually larger. The huge majority of wealthy immigrants are here because they have substantial liquid assets which make them a very valuable for our country to have. Let's not forget, the average person in the UK gets back more than they put in by £1700. I can't bloody find it now but there was a study (either by UCL or LSE) just after our last census that showed once you exclude immigrants with salaries over £36k IIRC (the point at which native brits break even on their contributions and withdrawals on state resources) shows us that EU immigrants cost the economy £1200 more than the same native income group. Although they were 45% less likely to claim JSA, they still could claim child benefit, the main reason for this difference is that there is a higher percentage of immigrants below the tax threshold than native brits and found ~70% sent regularly money home, that's money that the UK will not collect VAT or duty on and is removed from our economic cycle.

The average age of an immigrant who settles here for life is 34, however they will retire at the same age and receive the same pension as a native resident, meanwhile they have paid into the country for 16 years less. This is the problem, if you look at the cost of immigration to the UK before 2000 it was huge, largely due to the fact theat the people who immigrated between 1945 and 1960 had all retired and were economically inactive, come 2000 there were many young immigrants who were working and it brought the cost down.

Lets not forget the damage immigration does to the country they came from. Spain and Portugal are suffering hugely to get infrastructure projects underway as a huge number of skilled workers who worked in that industry before the crash are now in other countries, so they have to pay them more to come back. As a result for the same money those governments are getting less projects done for the same amount of money, so the infrastructure you need for workforce mobility is inhibited. Therefore it costs more money and takes longer for your economy to recover, meaning more people grow tired of not seeing any progress in their country and move - worsening the situation even further.

 

There's no real demand for this and no reason apart from vague mentions of cultural similarities, with a tad more than a light touch of colonialist anachronism.

 

I support the idea, but only for people going to Australia. It seems to have a lot of space in the middle.

Now getting back out will be a bit trickier...

 

I have some reservations about doing this within the Commonwealth. To allow freedom of movement to citizens of the 'elite' countries, but maintain restrictions for others seems wrong. I think it could be divisive.