The golden age for employers is ending
Popular discontent with mass immigration is rising, anti-immigrant parties are flourishing and mainstream parties are finally taking note., says the writer. PHOTO: AFP
For as long as most of us can remember, business has been able to call on a ready supply of foreign workers. The giants of Silicon Valley, farmers and food processors, hotels and restaurants, house builders and megastores: All have dealt with labour shortages by recruiting immigrants.
One result has been an astonishing demographic transformation: 16 per cent of the British population, 20 per cent of the Swedish population, 19 per cent of the German population and 14.3 per cent of the US population were born abroad.
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