Immigration works far better for Britain than Britons realize. A hard look at the facts J.F.O. McALLISTER
Posted Sunday, February 20, 2005; 12.03 GMT
tom stockill for time
refuge After fleeing Iran, Motazedian bought a pizzeria and is seeking a Ph.D. in metallurgy
Farhad Motazedian likes pizza, which is good because his shop makes as many as 80 pies a day. He arrived in Britain four years ago from Iran — claiming political asylum after getting caught up in antigovernment demonstrations — and ended up in Leicester, an industrial city 150 km north of London. For 15 months he shared a small room with two chain smokers in a run-down hotel that housed some 400 other asylum seekers. An experienced and energetic materials engineer, he wasn’t permitted to have a job while the authorities considered his case, so he volunteered to work for free food and pocket money at a suburban pizzeria called Roberto’s.
"I had to do something. I just wanted to learn," says Motazedian, 35, who also took courses in computer-aided design. After two years the authorities rejected his asylum bid; he appealed, and when he finally won refugee status he received a government check for $6,700 in retroactive income support. He and a partner then stumped up $8,000 each and borrowed another $8,000 to buy Roberto's and a small apartment upstairs; Motazedian moved into it and kept making those pies. He also enrolled in a doctoral metallurgy program at Leicester University — and won a full scholarship. "This is a miracle for me," says Motazedian. He's so busy in the lab that he recently had to sell his share of the pizza joint to his partner, but still lends a hand.
Ask most British voters what they think of immigrants, and you won't hear about the kind of drive and ambition Motazedian displays. Anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise in Britain, as it is elsewhere in Europe. In the U.K., the backlash is directed mainly at asylum seekers such as Motazedian — fueled by frequent tabloid headlines like a door we can't close (Daily Mail) and stop the asylum invasion (Express). In 1995, 65% of British citizens surveyed wanted to reduce the number of immigrants; by 2003 that number had increased to 74%. Some 39% of those surveyed link immigration to increased crime, and 64% think the government spends too much money helping immigrants. The popularity of the avowedly racist British National Party is stalled, but the U.K. Independence Party — which wants to cap immigration, pay existing immigrants to leave, and get Britain out of the E.U. — won 16.8% of the vote in the European parliamentary elections last June, and has more than 30 local council seats around the country.
And no wonder: a quarter of British voters think controlling immigration is the U.K.'s most pressing problem, and the Labour and Conservative parties are competing to out-tough each other on the issue. Two weeks ago Labour announced its new five-year plan to control immigration, including a points system, modeled on Australia's, to favor the highly skilled; on-the-spot penalties for employers who hire illegals; and swifter deportation for asylum seekers whose appeals have failed. The Tories would go further, setting an annual cap on immigrants of all sorts and withdrawing from the 1951 refugee treaty that obliges countries to take in anyone who is genuinely fleeing persecution. Two-thirds of voters say they like the approach. Last week the Tories made headlines again with a plan to require long-term non-European visitors to pay for health exams at home in order to cut the number arriving with tuberculosis and aids. Prime Minister Tony Blair accused the Tories of using immigration to "seize power by the back door."
But all that macho posturing doesn't square with the realities. Britain is becoming a nation of immigrants — 8% of its total population, and 26% of London's, was born outside the U.K. — but a much more successful one than the British people realize. That's a well-kept secret, partly because this politically explosive debate is being carried on in a knowledge vacuum. Research into why migrants come, what motivates and deters them, and what their effects are once they arrive has only recently become a serious field.
No one really knows how many immigrants are in the country. New entrants from outside the E.U. are noted upon arrival, but there is no system to record who leaves, so rejected asylum seekers who go to ground and people who overstay their visas are lost to official figures. Illegals who sneak in are invisible, too. Even the academics who produce the figures agree that the best estimates of immigrants' costs and contributions to the economy are crude. In the absence of hard numbers, the political debate rests on perceptions — and the crucial one is that people feel immigrants are flooding in. A 2003 survey showed that British citizens pegged the foreign-born population at 24%, three times the actual figure — a misperception common throughout Europe.
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citizens surveyed wanted to reduce the number of immigrants; by 2003 that number had increased to 74%. Some 39% of those surveyed link immigration to increased crime, and 64% think the government spends too much money helping immigrants. The popularity of the avowedly racist British National Party is stalled, but the U.K. Independence Party — which wants to cap immigration, pay existing immigrants to leave, and get Britain out of the E.U. — won 16.8% of the vote in the European parliamentary elections last June, and has more than 30 local council seats around the country. 
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