A senior German MP recently advised PM David Cameron to start praising the economic gains of immigration rather than trying to beat UKIP at its own game by bashing migrants.
Speaking on the same lines, Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder and Chairman of Cobra beer, during an interview with London Live said the current government “has made an absolute mess of immigration.” He emphasised that he would like international students taken out of immigration figures.
“On the one hand they (this government) have lost control of the borders, they had to disband the border agency. The government don’t have a clue how many illegal immigrants are in this country. I have been saying for years, bring in exit checks, scan everyone’s passports when they come in, scan everyone’s passports when they leave – EU and non-EU, then you know who is here that shouldn’t be here. Now the government said before the election ‘we’ll bring in exit checks’, I’ll believe that when I see it – if it’s there then that’s great. Illegal immigration, everyone agrees we need to clamp down on.
“On the other hand, the government has brought in a target of reducing immigration to the tens of thousands. The home secretary tried to deny that the other day – saying ‘we didn’t make a promise’ … now they realise they are not going to hit that target. In fact it’s not tens of thousands, it’s 240,000 – 250,000, that’s the wrong signal to send out. What the government should have been saying is ‘we want to curb bad immigration of people taking advantage of this country,” he said.
“We want to encourage good immigration that will benefit this country for example, foreign students. International students bring in up to fifteen billion pounds to this economy, as well as all the cultural benefits, and generation long benefits and links with their countries – yet we include the international student figures with immigration figures and it has sent out negative message to places like India, where the number of international students has actually fallen by 25%.
“Not only is international students one of our top exports, foreign students – for our economy… There are 27 world leaders who have been educated at British universities… Britain has the best higher education in the world along with the United States, we need to be saying that ‘we want to increase the number international students every year, and setting a target to increase them’. The first thing we need to do is to take international students of out of immigration figures,” he further added.
Speaking about racism, Lord Bilimoria said, “When I came here as a 19 year old in the early 80s, Britain was a very different country, Britain was a sick man of Europe, entrepreneurship was looked down upon... There was a glass ceiling, I was told by my family and friends if you decide to stay on after your studies and work in Britain you will never get to the top because you will not be allowed to get to the top as a foreigner.. I can say that glass ceiling has been shattered.”
