"Migrants take all the jobs".. how so?

My inspiration for starting this blog came from reading what I thought was quite a disturbing front page story in a national newspaper a few weeks ago.
The Daily Express - for once not writing about Diana, house prices or Maddy, printed a story with the headline "Migrants take all the jobs".
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not going to bore you with the "oh the media are always trying to make things worse" argument, as I am actually a newspaper reporter myself. But there was something about this headline that just made me cringe.

How on earth could that be correct? Have ALL migrants taken all new jobs? Surely not. I can think of a two new roles created in my office and I'm pretty sure they were taken by two white, very British-born individuals.

A friend of mine said to me "they mean the Eastern Europeans". Well I'm sorry but why is that? These people have moved to our country and work really hard. This just smacks of post war racism. Back then it was against Afro Caribbeans and Asians. Now it's Poles. Either way, it's just wrong.

This headline popped into my head at a recent press conference in Birmingham. It was about diversity in the workplace.

The Bishop of Birmingham, the Rt Rev David Urquhart, was present and I asked him what he thought about the headline and how we could possibly reduce hostility in the city towards migrants when views like these were floating around.

This was his response:

"There is a huge amount of good practice that businesses can learn from each other to ensure workplaces help all individuals flourish and become places where healthy relationships are formed and gifts, talents and skills are recognised, rewarded and developed.

"I think we would and we are benefiting from people from different societies and backgrounds from all over the world."

At the conference, he also called on Birmingham not to jump to conclusions about growing immigration in the country and the impact it has on the city's workforce.

Referring to national media reports on the topic, he said: "You should check everything. If I say something, I don't expect everyone to take it as gospel, unless it is actually the gospel.
"I am a migrant. I have come here from somewhere else."

I have to say his bit about the gospel did make me giggle.


Click here to read the full article in The Birmingham Post.