[Osem]

At present we have what the government claim is a sound and growing economy. If problems such as these are evident during what are supposed to be the good times, how much worse are things going to be when the house of cards tumbles down? If people think tensions between the communities are raised now, God knows what it'll be like if we have a slump. There has been little or no long term thought given to this issue (i.e. additional infrastructure, public services etc.) and too much emphasis placed on the short term economic benefits of migrant labour. Whilst there may well be longer term benefits to the economy of mass migration that isn't much comfort to those who perceive they are losing out now whether it be in jobs, housing, education or anything else. The government opened the floodgates apparently expecting a trickle but got a torrent of migrants and that is why the debate has recently intensified. Had this same migration been properly managed over a more sensible period there would have been time to put additional resources and services in place to mitigate the affects on the host population and provide better conditions for the migrants. The whole thing has been a shambles.