Some interesting figures were published this week by the Equality and Human Rights comission with regards to council housing and immigrants. I quote the facts as published in the Birmingham Post:
- New migrants make up three per cent of the total population but account for less than two per cent of the population in council housing.
- Nine in ten people living in council houses are UK born.
- Council houses are given to 11 per cent of new migrants, 17 per cent of UK-born residents and 18 per cent of foreign-born UK residents.
- Migrants tend to benefit from social housing after they have been settled for several years in the UK and become British citizens.
In my little perfect world, the tabloids that scream untruths about the issue would be forced to publish as many front pages with these facts as they have ones filled with unresearched xenophobia…
I think the problem is that the Tabloids will find specific cases and research them in depth and print an ‘interpretation’. A story about an immigrant who has 15 children and lives off benefits will sell many copies of the Daily Mail, whereas its not as profitable to run a headline about a migrant family with 2.4 children earning the average national wage.
Im sure there are examples of free riders that show a flaw in the system. And the Tabloids love to publish these stories