Vote to Remain in the European Union

On the 23^rd June 2016, British citizens will be making possibly one of the most important political decisions in their lifetime.

A non reversible decision, which will have significant impact on the United Kingdom both in economic and political terms.

It is, of course, the European Union referendum. We will be deciding on whether to remain or leave the EU, which Britain has been a part of since 1975.

In this blog post, I seek to reach out to people of my generation. Young people who, like me, were not around or were too young to understand, when the European Community and European Union was formed.

Young people who are perhaps apathetic towards politics, or don’t understand the situation, or cannot see the benefits that the UK’s membership with the European Union brings.

There are many reasons why we should remain in the EU, and many ramifications if we do leave it.

I’m here to focus on one: the issue of immigration.

Why?

When we talk about the EU, immigration is one of the major concerns that people raise. It is the discussion points of many political parties, it is regularly on the front pages of nonsense tabloid newspapers.

If there is one issue that would swing a young voter, who doesn’t particularly keep up with politics, it is the issue of immigration.

The European Union allows for freedom of movement between member states. Citizens of other EU countries can move to other EU countries to live and work without a visa.

There are many lies, myths and exaggerations about immigration. Most of these come from the headlines of  tabloid newspapers, who seek to stir anger and resentment towards immigrants.

Absolute rubbish headlines like these from newspapers like The Sun, The Daily Express and The Daily Mail. Newspapers which I like to refer to as scum:

These newspapers do a number of things. They take extreme and rare examples, and make out as if every single immigrant were the same.

They distort the facts and use hyperbolic language to sensationalise their stories. Most of the headlines they print are either exaggerations or are simply are not true.

The worst thing is that these newspapers have a wide circulation in the United Kingdom, and will most likely swing a lot of people’s votes on the EU referendum.

Your average British person probably gets their news from these papers, and most likely has neither the time or the motivation to actually read up on the facts.

Worst of all, these newspapers try and play on people’s fear and uncertainty of the foreign. They are almost encouraging racism.

Immigration has brought a lot of benefits to the UK. In fact, the UK needs immigration. Here’s why:-

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, many developed western countries (including the UK) experience a huge baby boom.

The people born in these baby boom years are now at retirement age. They worked hard all their lives to build success, and deserve their retirement.

Unfortunately, once someone retires, two things happen:

1) They are no longer working and therefore are not contributing to economic growth, or paying income tax to fund government spending.

2) They claim state pension which has to be paid for by the government.

The United Kingdom has a large proportion of people in retirement age, and not enough people of working age to stimulate the economy or to pay for the pensions of the retired.

Young British people are also having less children, and delaying starting families until later in life, in order to focus on career.

The result of this is:

1)   The number of pensioners keeps increasing.

2)   The working population continues decreasing.

3)   The government has to keep spending more on pensions, and the economy slow downs.

Why are immigrants solving this problem? Because the vast majority of them move to the United Kingdom to work. This stimulates the economy, and the tax from their income also helps to pay for Britain’s retired pensioners.

Immigrants also tend to have larger families than British people. These children of immigrants grow up, enter the work force and again, help to stimulate the economy.

If you would like to see what happens in alternate reality, you just need to look at Japan.

Like the United Kingdom, they also have a very large retired population. Marriage rates amongst young Japanese are low, and birth rates are even lower.

The key difference is that Japan has very little immigration into the country to help grow the working population, stimulate the economy, and to pay for their retired population through taxes.

The result? Japan’s economy has been faltering for the past decade and shows no sign of recovery. The Japanese government is also trillions of US dollars in debt.

It’s what could have happened to the United Kingdom if we had gone down the same path.

If we left the EU, we could lose many of the economic benefits that immigrants bring.

It works two ways as well. Us Brits would not be able to travel to or work in continental Europe without a visa. There are a lot of Brits living in EU countries at the moment.

Currently 1 million Brits live in Spain (many of whom are retired). These Brits could find themselves in a very difficult situation if we left the EU.

Of course, the issue of immigration and freedom of movement in the EU is only one of a number discussions on the EU.

The EU has also given us a lot of benefits and I am going to pick out a few that I appreciate, and believe that other people of my generation would also appreciate.

Working Time Directive. 

This is essentially a set of laws which protects our rights and health safety at work. You can find the full details here.

After living and working in Hong Kong for over two years, where the labour laws are not as generous or thorough, I can tell you that the Working Time Directive is definitely something I wish Asia had.

Peace and stability in Europe. 

The whole point of the EU was to ensure that European countries never went to war with each other again, by encouraging every country to trade with each other. For the most part, this has been extremely successful.

The UK’s standing in the world. 

We have to face it. The UK punches above its weight in the world, partly because of the history of the British Empire and partly because of the EU.

We are a country with a strong economy that speaks a global language. We are seen by many other countries as the gateway to Europe. We leave the EU, and our importance on the world stage diminishes.

More reasons to remain? 

Find them all here.

Final Thoughts… 

I would like to sign off with this message to every young British person, particularly those who are on the fence with their decision.

Leaving the EU is not something we can try and if we don’t like it, can decide to reverse.

Once we have left, that’s it. And we have to accept whatever the consequences are.

This is probably the most important political decision you will ever make in your life time. It has more wide ranging effects than a general election.

If you think your vote won’t make a difference to the result, think again. The most recent polls show that it is neck and neck. A few hundred or thousands of votes could swing and decide this referendum.

If politics does not interest you, I fully understand. But please realise the importance of this event, and please motivate yourself this one time to take part.

You will not regret it.

On the 23^rd of June 2016, please vote to remain in the European Union.