Quote Originally Posted by MMI View Post
Can't speak for Americans and Mexicans, but over here, it is frequently pointed out to the anti-immigration lobby that for all the "burden" they place on us, we still benefit economically (not to mention socially and culturally) from immigration.

We frequently hear that, They're taking our jobs, claiming social benefits and having babies for free on the NHS!!! What this really means is that immigrants are doing work we are too "good" for, are sometimes given enough money for food, clothes and sanitary towels, and have been royally screwed by the people already living here before they try to send them back home.
And that's besides the highly trained (at some poorer country's expense) doctors and other experts who keep the NHS going so we don't have to spend money training them.

And, of course, plenty of what such ranters think of as "immigrants" are actually third generation citizens. Eric Pickles was a hard-right Conservative, but when his party started to talk about "sending the Asians back where they came from" he brought them down to earth by pointing out that in his constituency, you could send most of them back where they came from with a bus ticket.