NHS and Immigration

Research by the Nuffield Trust thinktank showed that the proportion of hospital personnel born outside the UK is  close to one in four (23.5%) in 2018/19. It warned that ending freedom of movement for EU citizens after Brexit – which both major parties back – would reduce the numbers coming to Britain and exacerbate lack of staff in both the NHS and social care. The Nuffield Trust’s report in effect told both the Tory and Labour parties that they risked deterring doctors, nurses and other health professionals – which the NHS needs – from moving to Britain. NHS bosses warned recently that understaffing is so severe that patient safety and quality of care are now at risk.

“If you needed any proof of how dependent we are on our international staff this is it. Our hospitals, community services and social care would collapse without the skill and dedication of a wide range of professional support staff, many not only born overseas but trained overseas as well,” said Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation.

Anti-immigrant attacks are so inherent in the daily operation of capitalist society, the only successful fight against them has to become anti-capitalist. Our purpose is to demonstrate that the anti-immigrant movement has to be replaced by one based on the working class and its interests. The Socialist Party are unwavering internationalists. We have no interest in building separate nations. We are, however, on the side of oppressed who struggle against our common enemy, the ruling class.

An increasingly important minority section of capitalists and their political attack-dogs are becoming overtly racist in their attacks on immigrants. They wrap themselves in the flag and spout the slogans of right-wing populism. They find a voting base among economically desperate. Mouthpieces of the ruling class, warn about “the immigrant hordes” and the threatened “loss of Western Christian culture and values.” Such “respectable” politicians supply aid and comfort not only to anti-immigrant thuggery but also encourages the dangerous rise in the general xenophobic sentiment.