Tzu Lee: We’ve been to a local farm that’s grown, like, amazingly quickly in the past 5 years. And we’ve interviewed the owner and some of the workers…

David: And we’ve got some questions…..

Tzu Lee: The owner, right, he said the foreign workers were doing jobs that didn’t exist before, so they aren’t taking anyone’s jobs. Do you agree with that?

MP: Yes, I would say at the moment that’s true.

Nat: And he says they are mostly young, so they haven’t got kids in school, and they’re the sort of age when they don’t get ill much, y’know, like in their 20s.

MP: All right, yes on the whole that’s true.

Nat: So he says people ought to stop moaning about foreign workers and realise that they’re doing the country good, and we’d be worse off without them.

MP: Is that a question?

David: Well, we asked what happens when the workers get older, have kids in school, maybe need more health care ….

Nat: And he said that was a problem for the politicians, he was just a businessman.

MP: I think he’s right in many ways. It’s not a businessman’s job to plan the future of schools and hospitals, or houses come to that. You didn’t say anything about houses, but there might be a problem quite soon with there simply not being enough housing for the growing workforce we’ve got.

Tzu Lee: So what are you going to do about it?

MP: Well we have to plan…

Tzu Lee: Yeah well you say that, but in the meantime there are people getting all prejudiced about these workers. They’re going to get the blame if there aren’t enough houses and flats, aren’t they?

John: I mean, I have a cousin with a baby who has nowhere to live….

MP: I agree, possibly they will. Look, I don’t have a magic wand that will wave away all these problems…. I think those that complain about these new immigrants have got it wrong, they don’t understand the full picture.

Nat: And the full picture means good things as well as problems?

MP: Yes. There will be problems if we don’t plan ahead for schools, and some schools are already seeing an increase in children from eastern Europe, who of course arrive not speaking English.

Nat: But have I got this right? Britain is getting wealthier cos these people are here cos they buy stuff in the shops and they pay taxes…

Tzu Lee: So if there are extra costs one day, we ought to expect to pay them?

MP: It’s even more than that. We get a very good deal from these workers because we have not had to pay the costs of their education. Their countries paid for that, and we get them when they’re ready to work….. In the case of nurses, for instance, we also get them fully trained, all at their own countries’ expense…

Nat: Yeah my mum says that’s really terrible, some poor African country spends all that money training a nurse then we go and nick ‘em. It’s all wrong innit?

MP: It’s another complicated issue, and the nurses themselves choose to come, but what you say just proves how much we benefit from this immigration. We get ready trained and educated workers, all at no cost.

Nat: But the costs will come later, right?

MP: And as I say, some costs have started already, like in some schools. But yes, we have to face the fact that while these workers are a good cheap deal for us now, at some time there will be costs.

Tzu Lee: You say ‘at some time’…... When?

MP: It will be many years before they take as much out of the economy as British people. We all really start costing money when we’re old, and that’s a long way off for these new workers. It’s hard to say for sure, but for maybe 30 years they will put more into the wealth of the country than they will take out.

Nat: What? You serious?

MP: Yes. We know that for the immigrants who came in the 1950s and 1960s….

Nat: Yeah like my gran….

MP: Er... Quite. Until quite recently they paid more in taxes than they ever got out.

Tzu Lee: I’m still not sure I get it….

MP: It’s for the reasons I’ve said. When people come here as young adults we haven’t had to pay for their education, they tend to be healthy, so it’s a long time before they get old and start needing expensive health care.

David: So what’s all the fuss politicians keep making about immigration?

MP: There are things that need to be planned for, like enough housing, otherwise people are fighting over too few places to live. We have to make sure immigrants don’t put British people out of work by accepting lower wages. And of course some people just get bothered by finding foreigners around them speaking other languages……