The Immigration Debate Reporters: Max, Rahil and Mitul IMMIGRATION: a word that has been key in British politics over the last few years. As the Geography department preps up for a hot debate on Tuesday, we explore what immigration means to MTS. The Office for National Statistics confirms that ‘583,000 people immigrated to the UK in the year ending June 2014, a statistically significant increase from 502,000 in the previous 12 months. There were statistically significant increases in immigration of EU (up 45,000) and non-EU (up 30,000) citizens.’ Should this be limited? Is this acceptable? It seems that people have different views on immigration according to their own experience, particularly if they are from a background in which their family immigrated. People seem to focus on that they see as ‘the bad side’ of immigration when they are not from a family of immigrants. The Geography Society is holding a debate on Immigration this week. We interviewed a small selection of the student body on their views. Joe (Upper Sixth) told us that he thinks the topic of immigration is very controversial. He explained that the argument against immigration blames immigrants for ‘taking jobs’ whilst arguments for immigration suggest that ‘many immigrants contribute to society and pay taxes’. Mustafa (Fourths) whose parents were born in Somaliland thinks that immigration is good because it allows people from developing countries to get well paid jobs. Sean (Thirds) told us that his grandparents emigrated from Ireland to England. He explained that his life could be completely different if his parents hadn’t been able to emigrate. Overall, MTS’s views on immigration seem positive, though there is a national trend at the moment for people, including politicians, to think it is ‘cool’ to irrationally say that immigration is bad. A Personal Perspective From Mitul Definition: Immigration (noun) - when a person moves from one country to another permanently e.g. “a border to control illegal immigration.” Immigration is a controversial topic. Throughout politics, many are for and many against immigration. People may oppose immigration as they complain that immigrants take ‘their’ jobs. Also another major antiimmigration argument is that immigrants replace the local culture with their own and many do not learn the local language. However, many people support immigration as they pay taxes and contribute to the economy. Personally, I am a 2nd generation immigrant as both my parents are of Indian descent and moved to England when they were children from African countries. I have lived in England all my life and have never lived in India. My grandfather on my mother’s side moved here and became a solicitor. He speaks Gujrati, Hindi and English. He speaks to me in Gujrati and English to help keep our culture alive. When my father moved here, he had a very strong Indian accent, however now he does not as most of his education was in England.