.....Secondly, immigrants contribute more to the fiscal ledger than they cost, families included. We’ve been importing labour since the year dot and the arguments against it are like Groundhog Day.
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About Norwich - a city which in the 16th century was about one third immigrants.
England is a land of immigrants. The very first human beings set foot here from Doggerland to hunt 10,000 years ago. With the mighty Ice Age glaciers retreating, the land was perfect for hunting large elk and mammoth. People have been coming from other lands to settle here ever since. With the Beaker People, Celts, Romans, Saxons, Anglo Scandinavians, Normans and many other cultures coming here from other countries, we have always been a mix of peoples. Norwich is no exception. Our own immigrant settlers have appeared in Norwich since the Normans arrived in the 11th Century. They brought French Jewish communities to help with finances. In the 1500s, from mainland Europe, came Protestant refugees. They brought Norwich large sums of money, to the point where our city became second only to London in terms of wealth. These people became known locally as The Strangers. Like any new settlers, they received a sizeable amount of xenophobia, as seems to be an unfortunate common theme among those less accepting. Despite this, they made such a mark on our city that we still celebrate them today.
Manchester was a quarter Irish 150 years ago, and a lot of the rest from other parts of Britain.
Once more, the roll call of immigrant wealth-creators in the NW in the 19th century before we restricted immigration: Beyer-Peacock, Renold Chains, Clayton Aniline, ICI (Brunner-Mond), Ferranti...