UK

Rural to urban drift
Within the UK, there is still a large movement of people from rural to urban areas, as people seek better employment prospects. Younger people argue that there are no opportunities for them within rural communities, and that they have no choice but to move to urban areas. There also continues to be a North - South drift of population, despite an expansion in all UK cities. Ironically, some city dwellers yearn for an ‘idealised’ rural lifestyle, and so buy second homes there. This has increased property prices, making it even harder for younger people to remain in rural areas.

Impact on housing demands
As towns and cities increase this leads to greater demands for housing. The ambition of many within the UK is to own their own house, ideally with its own garden. As a result, there is an ever increasing demand for new homes to be built. This means that more of the surrounding ‘green belt’ is built upon, thereby actually reducing the amount of countryside left. Government policies now promote building on land formally used for other purposes (brown belt). Yet as new properties are built, this seems to increase demand, with even more people being attracted to an area!

The asylum issue
The media in the UK has recently featured many stories about asylum seekers and economic migrants. Much of the reporting has been hostile, with the tabloids in particular accusing many genuine asylum seekers of being either terrorists, or simply economic migrants who are coming to ‘sponge off the state’, by claiming social welfare benefits. Claims of the UK being ‘swamped’ with bogus applicants have helped fuel a rise in xenophobia in some areas of the country. Yet the real story is somewhat different. According to UN statistics, Britain only takes 2% of the world’s refugees or asylum seekers.

A moral issue?
Many asylum seekers in the UK now face detention as their claims are processed, with the threat of deportation hanging over them. A recent government attempt to increase the number of detention centres has met with resistance, not least from the inhabitants of the areas surrounding the proposed new centres. Unfortunately their protests seem to focus on concerns about their own livelihoods, rather than on the morality of detaining people when they have committed no crime. An attempt to deny benefits to those who do not immediately claim asylum when entering the country has been defeated.