THE levels of immigration into our country continue to cause concern.
Latest numbers show that the net figure is a record 335,000.
If you consider that the population of Leeds is circa 700,000, we are effectively creating a city this size every two years.
This is totally unsustainable.
In addition, those who do come to this country are not integrating and I warned of this six years ago.
A timely reminder has just been published by Dame Louise Casey.
She says that the pace of immigration has aggravated the problem in some areas.
In Sheffield the number of eastern European pupils in some schools has jumped from five to 95 per cent in just five years.
Some Muslim communities, too, have notably failed to integrate, Dame Louise adds, with “misogyny and patriarchy” depriving women of their basic rights.
This is particularly applicable in northern towns where many men return to Pakistan to find a wife, who’s then brought back to the UK.
Unable to speak English, these women can become isolated socially, living under cultural and religious practices that run “contrary to British values and sometimes our laws”.
Dame Louise adds that authorities of all kinds have ignored and even condoned these harmful traditions for fear of being seen as racist or Islamophobic.
She proposes that all new immigrants should take an oath supporting British values on arrival here and that their children should be taught them in school.
I think she’s right.
They do this in America and it does appear to work.
If people want to settle in this country, they must respect our laws, customs and Christian-based society.
Tolerance runs two ways and it’s only as a united nation that we can face all the many challenges that lie ahead.