Migration in the Fens - Two Great Lies

My view is that migration of people both from other parts of the country and from abroad is part of the human condition and a mature, free and fair society both locally and nationally should not fear it. However, migration is subject to two opposing lies: one that it is on the whole good and positive; and the other that it is on the whole bad and negative. As ever with polarised arguments the truth lies in-betweens.

However , the mass immigration into the area when Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the European Union in a very short period of time was an act of political negligence fuelled by a combination of mistake and naivety at best and at worst greed, exploitation, lies and deceit. Prior to the new East European members in 2004 Tony Blair’s government assured the UK at that time that no more than 13,000 of these “New Europeans” would seek a new life in the UK each year.

This assumption by the Labour government was based upon a poor quality reading of a report by Professor Christian Dustmann of UCL that was commissioned by the Home Office.[i] The report states clearly the  assumptions made and weaknesses in data. Yet the Minister Beverley Hughes happily repeatedly parroted the 13,000 a year figure. Key to the problem being made worse was that of all the prior members of the EU only the UK, Ireland and Sweden fully opened their doors to new entrants. The impact on the UK and specifically Fenland was both colossal and unsurprising to me for I had been seeing an increasing number of workers from Eastern Europe come over and thrive on seasonal workers schemes before 2004. It was, in my opinion, a disgusting act of deceit by Germany, the country most pressing for European expansion, that it then imposed restrictions.

By July 2006 the Polish newspaper Polityka stated an estimated one million Poles had moved to the UK. Between May 2004 and June 2007 430,000 Poles applied to the Home Office worker registration scheme – but it needs to be remembered that this scheme was voluntary and immigrants did not have to enrol in it. It also needs to be remembered that these figures are for Poland only. There were also considerable numbers from the other newly admitted countries. In the Fenland area the only two nationalities that were not easily noticeable as incoming were Hungarians and Maltese despite historic migrations to the area from these countries in the past.

On top of all this it is clear from my experience talking to people and their stories that the East European borders leak like a sieve and Germany in particular was a clearing ground for Russians and Ukrainians wishing to enter the UK with a German passport.

The clear thread I see in every academic report on predicted migration and its effects both nationally and regionally  are admitted weaknesses in data collection especially in regards to forecasts and they repeatedly warn of inaccuracy and “what ifs”. I fear this is especially true in the Fenland area and strongly believe for Spalding both the 2001 and 2011 census were highly inaccurate and fear this was repeated in 2021. The basis of my view in 2001 and 2011 I talked to various near neighbours and clients about the forms and it is clear that the census was viewed with suspicion and they had no desire to fill it in accurately as required by law. Whilst there are other statistics and measures for population assessment, such as doctor registrations,   it is a fact that more transient people and those in multi-occupancy housing tend not to register on figures. I look at what I see day to day, whether the quantity of cars, people in shops and rely on my first-hand experience and consider whether it tallies with an official view or report.

In January 2013 the local anger came to the fore on national television on BBC Question Time as the esteemed historian Professor Mary Beard unfairly became victim of relying upon a report based on Boston that vied with local real life experience when asked about the coping of services. Her response was this:

“I’d like to answer this with a local perspective. I am not sure that the national politicians speech is always the best at seeing what is going on in one’s own area. The most impressive single document I have read on this issue comes from ‘Boston Council the Task and Finish Group Report on Population Change in Lincolnshire’ and it does in fact answer the question about public services because it looks very carefully at the changes that happened in Boston over the last 10 years. It does identify particular issues with an influx of any kind of population but at the same time it makes it absolutely clear that actually we cope from this and can benefit from it. It is very clear for example that the European migrants have a low use of the benefits system. They have a low use of the healthcare system. They tend to be fit young people and they take very small amounts of social housing. Only 1% of social housing is actually occupied by people who are economic migrants and I think the report, partly because it deals with local people’s concerns in one particular area with particular agricultural issues, not industrial issues, it managed to draw the right boundary between denying that there was any problem, but also not being catastrophic about it.”[ii]

Professor Beard’s confidence in and regard for this report was so great that when challenged she stated that, “there are a huge number of myths” and  that the report suggested that an increase in births by East Europeans had helped Boston hospital maternity wing keep open.

“I’m sorry I really disagree….” was the cry of Boston local Rachel Bell in the audience with many viewers watching at home in the area agreeing with her. She went on to say, “Boston is at breaking point. All the locals can’t cope any more. The services, doctors surgeries, hospitals. I have a family member, a midwife at Boston hospital the facilities are at breaking point because of these people coming in the country and nothing is being done. And there are hardly any locals there anymore because they are all moving away. You go down to Boston High Street and it’s just like you are in a foreign country. It’s got to stop.”

The local anger to this was huge and Professor Beard suffered an horrendous personal attack and an inappropriate backlash. In the meantime, whilst others tweeted angrily I read the report.[iii]

The report was interesting in that it painted a picture of the Boston Borough coping. If I was to pick fault it would be the erroneous view that Boston had no diversified industry in that its primary industry is food packing, processing and distribution and the support industries behind that. Indeed, it was incredibly fair-minded report in that Professor Gary Craig invited criticism and query. But sadly much of this came from the Boston Protest Group – a group that in my opinion had no ability to give reasoned challenges resulting in them asking what I regard as a goading question that he did not rise to, “Do you think I am racially motivated?”

This sums up a severe problem that has failed to be addressed throughout Fenland from Boston down to Spalding and Wisbech. Sadly when people talk about the effects of migration, which remember affect those migrating into the area too, they are too readily dismissed as “racist” or “xenophobic”. This is further complicated by those who vociferously talk nonsense for their own twisted beliefs. This is why when a Right Wing Group visited Spalding to make a noise in the Sheep Market I deliberately went up town to heckle them and make it clear I did not welcome them (until a policeman asked me to ‘take a breather’). However, fears and problems are not addressed, the wrong questions asked, or reality not realised in published reports. For example only 1% of social housing occupied by economic migrants was undoubtedly true, but that was not the problem – a massive increase in mostly illegal multi-occupancy housing throughout the Fenland towns caused chaos and misery for residents, including myself at times. Boston Borough Council along with other local authorities did not wish to acknowledge their failing in addressing this issue. Indeed, if they tried to address this issue it could create a knock-on problem of homelessness and they wished to avoid that. Indeed this was admitted to me by two local Councillors. The  problems of multiple occupancy only improved with the advent of Brexit and the subsequent Covid pandemic in my experience. Indeed it was a godsend down my street. Mary Beard’s quote about Boston’s maternity unit relying upon migrant births to stay open was an unfortunate thing to quote from the report. Many locals felt that births were being redirected elsewhere deliberately to reduce numbers (this could not be proven) with the catchment area being huge for Boston without a helicopter it possibly meant at least a ninety minute journey from say Spalding to Lincoln, or worse still to Nottingham. This was seen by some health professionals at the time as empire building at Lincoln. You have to consider many locals had seen maternity wings and cottage hospitals close throughout the Fens. Even requests for accurate information, as we have seen the enemy of political decisions is inaccurate information, such as Amber Rudd’s proposal to get companies to declare the number of foreign workers they employ was deemed “divisive and damaging.”

All this fuelled a class of people that swap opinions online  only with people that they agree with. Thus we lumbered towards Brexit with an “urban” class so out of touch that they could not understand why such a large group of Fenland folk would forgo access to continental markets, easy travel to Europe with minibreaks to continental cities. The simple fact is that the area was being short-changed and lack of adequate investment in the area was funding dissatisfaction.

In the  2001 census  98.5 % of Boston indicated they were white British. Ten years later the census revealed 10.6% of the population came from one of the East European EU countries. The 2021 census has revealed 23.6% of Boston’s population was born outside the UK of which 5.6% was born in Lithuania and 5.4% in Poland. This is echoed in Wisbech which is jokingly called Wisbeckistan, and to a varying degree in every Fenland town.

The pandemic saw an element of reset amongst the chaos that was happening. The ability to gain employment outside gang labour increased as did wages. Multiple occupancy houses became empty. The number of cars down my street reduced to an average of one per household. To name some of the milder benefits. 

The problem is now that following: the immigration shock of 2004; the financial shock of the 2008 banking crisis (which saw food processing and employment hit hard); the subsequent austerity of public spending; then Brexit and the pandemic; - means that much in infrastructure, services and systems are either broken or not working well. The Fenland area requires massive investment of money spent well to repair this and as I write these words in 2024 I have little faith in this happening at a local or national level. Above all else, the area needs quality leadership in business, politics and services as has happened in the past by people with the will strength and ability to get things done.

[i] The Impact of EU enlargement on migration flows, Home Office Online Report 25/03

[ii] BBC Question Time transmission 17th January 2013

[iii] Social Impact of Population Change – A Report of the Task and Finish Group Boston Borough Council as adopted by full Council on 18th November 2012.