Migrant labour is important to economy (From The Bolton News)

Migrant labour is important to economy

THE Conservative Party's claim in a full page advertisement in the Bolton Evening News on April 21, that asylum seekers are responsible for council tax increases is as despicable as it is false.

Central government provides almost all the costs associated with housing, settlement and education for asylum seekers and refugees (people who have been granted asylum).

This group of people is actually responsible for a net increase of funding coming into the local economy, much of which finds its way to businesses in the town. To lay the blame for rises in council tax is a low political stunt.

Asylum seekers arrive in this town from various war-torn parts of the world. They leave these places because their lives and the lives of their families are in danger. The developed world, including the UK, has a humanitarian responsibility to help. To imply, as the Conservative Party advertisement does, that such efforts are a waste of money, reveals an utter moral vacuum in their thinking.

In recent months teachers, a dentist, doctors and a surveyor are among those who have joined the town's community from war-ravaged countries to rebuild their lives. Their presence alone makes a positive economic contribution to the economy and they will fill much needed employment vacancies in the town if and when they are legally allowed to do so.

Only last Friday the Confederation of British Industry stated their opposition to the Conservative policy on asylum and immigration, citing the importance of migrant labour to the growth of the economy.

Given all this, and the repeated assertions from the Conservative Party and others of a similar persuasion that they are not racist, one wonders what it is exactly that exercises them so much. Actually, the answer is not difficult to find. Because, once stripped of the outright falsehoods and the emotive nonsense concerning the policies of the other two main political parties, the Conservative election advertisement simply says this: We don't want you here because you are different.

Fortunately, the people of Bolton have long since rejected such xenophobic attitudes. We have a proud history of celebrating diversity in the town, as the success of our sportsmen and women, musicians, writers, business and community leaders shows. Bolton is a place where people can flourish.

Long may it continue to be so.

The Conservatives, and any other party that seeks to undermine the town's cultural and economic vitality for their own political ends, should be ashamed of themselves.

Chris Chilton

Vice-chairman Bolton Against Racism

Wood Street

Bolton