Empowering Stereotypes, Not People. - A note on immigration

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Immigration is more relevant than ever, with borders opening and a explosion of the press coverage on the topic and it hasn't ever been more alarming. Since our slow recovery after the credit crisis, many people feel vulnerable and as a result people have become even more xenophobic in society.
But as stereotypes build, more and more people become hostile to foreign persons and anything that concerns itself with immigration.

Indeed jobs are scarce and money may be short but anger towards immigrants or even anyone that is 'different' is not a just person to blame, they are merely a scapegoat that has been generated by stereotypes and fear.

Let's take this from another perspective, person X is worried about their job security and fear that immigration would lead to people losing their jobs. However, lets assume that immigration into the UK boosts the demand for goods and services, lowers labour costs (as immigrants may do jobs many of us would rather not) and boosts efficiency. The effect creates more jobs and expands the labour market so that those with UK workplace skills benefit from the immigration of foreign workers.
So in actual fact we may benefit more from immigration than the benefits given to those who come to work. The standing stereotype that immigrants are benefit scroungers and job stealer's are completely false, many immigrants that we view as hostile (i.e those from countries with a lower GDP) are not custom to receiving benefits and therefore do not but merely fill a gap in the job market that would otherwise not be filled.

So you may not be convinced that this may not be the case and fair enough, but what happens if we do not encourage the prosperity of all persons regardless of where they were born but rather encourage the stereotypes?

Well the truth is that this has happened before and this consensus of anti-immigration has led to a system of protectionism. If we simply start to refuse to engage in a free and mobile society, we refuse to cooperate with the rest of the world, prosperity would never come back and every person would simply be an island. This I argue is alarming and dangerous and therefore, as long as it is properly managed, immigration is beneficial to society.

"Stopping illegal immigration would mean that wages would have to rise to a level where Americans would want the jobs currently taken by illegal aliens." -Thomas Sowell