00:00to immigration. But what about the types of people? Because there's been suggestions today
00:04that actually when it comes to immigration from poorer countries, we should be tightening our
00:10belts and restricting the numbers on that side of the fence and instead looking more favourably
00:15on immigration from the likes of EU countries. Well, the only research I've seen on this
00:21comes from Denmark and the Netherlands. We've never done any research on this.
00:29But what it showed there, convincingly, is that immigrants from poor countries, and I'm
00:36talking about Bangladesh and Pakistan, are a net cost to the exchequer of quite a substantial
00:42amount. And immigrants that come actually from Western Europe, right, are a net gain to
00:48the exchequer, which actually plays to the argument, which is that we should rescind Brexit because
00:54the quality of immigrants coming to our country will be higher. But that's a completely different
00:58argument. So, but however, these are the only facts we've seen. We should carry out research.
01:05Remember, the Home Office would never, ever, ever say, break down crime by country. Now
01:11they've decided to do it. They could definitely work out. Under pressure. Under pressure.
01:15They've not just worked up and thought themselves as what they're doing. So we've seen some pressure
01:18start now. So therefore, actually, we should now see the Home Office, Yvette Cooper, who's had
01:25a latter-day conversion to this kind of view, right? Her announced we're going to work out
01:29which immigrants are making money for us and which are a cost to the country.
01:35Steve?
01:36Well, I'm not sure we should be focusing on countries. I think we should be focusing on
01:41the individuals who are coming here. We should be making sure we have people with the qualifications
01:46and the skills that will benefit this country and will be an addition to this country. I think it's
01:53actually quite difficult to be clear about it on a country basis, because despite the research you
02:00mentioned there, I mean, I think there's also some research that shows that Pakistani Americans do far
02:07better in American society than the vast majority in this country. That would suggest it may be something
02:16about the people you're actually bringing in. I don't know enough about it, but the point I'm making is
02:24we should concentrate on the individual. And there are examples in the past. I mean, I know that Bangladesh
02:30has made some economic progress in recent years. But at one stage, we used to have a reciprocal health deal
02:36with Bangladesh because we could get well-trained doctors and nurses there who came and helped our
02:44health service and actually invariably went back to Bangladesh and helped their country as well.
02:50So it's about the quality and the skills of the people you're bringing in. And it's about their record.
02:56If they've got a criminal record, what sort of person are you inviting into your country?
03:01Well, I've seen that research, which shows that the Pakistani Americans came from a better area of
03:10Pakistan. We seem to get the rejects and they get the good guys. So perhaps we should start looking
03:17at whereabouts they came from and before we make a decision about whether we should allow them in or
03:22not. Well, what do you think to it all? I think no matter what side of the fence anyone sits on or the
03:27viewpoint you all have, transparency, data transparency can only surely be a good thing,
03:33can't it? Because I was watching some commentary yesterday and the suggestion was it was pandering
03:38to the so-called far right to try and ask for this data. I mean, how ridiculous is that?
03:44You get your data, surely, and from there you can make decisions and have proper,
03:49honest conversations. Can you not?
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