Immigration

 
During the election, you will hear mainly from the right wing parties about immigration and it is an issue as the numbers of people driven out of their homes by war, natural disasters and climate change are higher than ever before, the UN puts the figure at 117 million people displaced in 2023.
The number of people forced to leave their homes in 2023 was 117 million, a doubling of the amount of displaced people a decade ago and it's still rising, with the UN estimating that within the first four months of 2024 that figure went over 120 million.
So what is forcing people from their homes?
Dr Leonie Ansems de Vries, professor of international politics and chair of the Migration Research Group at King's College London puts it down to conflict, violence, human rights abuses, natural disasters and environmental degradation.
Many of the countries who take in the most refugees are vulnerable themselves, with fewer resources than more developed nations with Iran hosting the most refugees in the world with most coming from Afghanistan and Iraq although despite hosting many refugees, many also come from Iran and go to countries like Germany which hosts the largest number of refugees in Europe at nearly 3 million.
The USA, despite being the Worlds largest economy, are 20th in the ranking of refugees hosted and the UK is 19th, trailing behind many less-developed countries such as Chad, Jordan, Ethiopia or Kenya who have taken refugees from Sudan, the nation who at 600,000, have produced the highest number of refugees.
War and violence are driving the immigration but climate change is making the situation worse, 2023 was the warmest year on record with global air surface temperatures 1.5C above pre-industrial levels and the World Meteorological Organization says over the next four years temperatures will be between 1.1C and 1.9C higher than pre-industrial levels.
At the end of 2023, almost 75% of displaced people were living in countries with high to extreme exposure of climate-related hazards such as droughts and floods which makes us very fortunate to be living in a country that is not quite so devastatingly affected by the changing climate.
Finally, don't believe the nonsense about immigrants being a drain on the economy, the Government's own figures show that immigrants pay more in income taxes and national insurance contributions than they receive in tax credits and child benefit, contributing a net amount of £22bn to the UK economy and the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that higher net migration reduces pressure on government debt over time.
Worth thinking about next time some right wing politician is on TV berating immigrants.