Prevent Immigration From Becoming A Misery Business.
This article is about understanding how over-immigration can become a Misery Business if you go down this path at a time in your country’s existence where you’re not actually capable of handling it.
I will be highlight the issues and offering a solution that might be a little different to what you’ve been told in the past and I think it is all good news but will require some big changes today and tomorrow etc.
I’ve previously wrote an article called, Immigration Can Be A Misery Business. I didn’t offer a solution on that occasion as just discussing the issue seemed enough at the time.
Through this article I’ll look at the problem from a different perspective and offer a few solution options along the way.
Did Your Country Underestimate the Harmful Effects of Over-Immigration?
Immigration, when effectively managed, can sometimes be a boost for any country, enriching its cultural fabric and boosting the economy.
However, the landscape changes dramatically when immigration levels surpass a nation’s capacity to assimilate newcomers, leading to a phenomenon we term the “misery business.”
This term encapsulates the adverse consequences that arise when a country underestimates the harmful effects of over-immigration.
Instead of integration and mutual benefit, over-immigration can lead to social fragmentation, economic strain, and a host of other issues that degrade the quality of life for both immigrants and native citizens.
Through this article I’ll do my best to delve into the nuanced and often overlooked repercussions that excessive immigration can impose on a country.
I will explore various signs that indicate a country has misjudged the impact of over-immigration, from strained public services to rising social tensions.
By understanding these indicators, policymakers and the general public alike can better grasp the intricate balance required to maintain a healthy immigration policy.
This article is not intended to undermine the value of immigration but to highlight the importance of sustainable practices that benefit all parties involved.
Over-immigration can manifest in numerous ways, each contributing to the overarching misery business. From overwhelmed healthcare systems to housing shortages and increased unemployment rates, the signs are multifaceted and interconnected.
Social cohesion may weaken as communities struggle to integrate diverse populations, leading to cultural clashes and misunderstandings.
Moreover, the economic burden of over-immigration can strain public resources, making it difficult for governments to provide adequate services to both immigrants and native residents.
As I navigate through this complex issue, it is crucial to recognize that the solution lies not in halting immigration 100% but it might necessitate a reduction in immigration or a temporary halt whilst a country implements better policy that ensures it can happen without detrimental affects.
By acknowledging and addressing the signs of over-immigration, countries can work towards creating a more harmonious and prosperous society for all its inhabitants.
Increased Strain on Social Welfare Systems.
Over-immigration can create substantial pressure on a nation’s social welfare systems, leading to unsustainable demands that strain public resources.
When the influx of immigrants surpasses the capacity of social services, the system can become overwhelmed, resulting in diminished quality and accessibility of essential services for both immigrants and native populace.
One primary area affected is healthcare in particular the overburdening of hospitals. Healthcare systems are reliant on the right ratio of healthcare providers to the population and when it comes to hospitals, this is never more easily demonstrated, especially in the emergency wards.
There is nothing sadder I can think of then forcing a hospital system to struggle beyond reason.
The very hard workingdoctors, nurses and the hundreds of healthcare professionals and other workers that make a hospital system work can only do so much and we should not expect them to work double shifts, 150% duration shifts and being refused to take holidays due to the system demands.
If the population grows at a rate that outstrips the capacity of the hospital systems, then I worry that a country may be placing people in harms way.
I just do not think we should ever willingly do something that for force a hospital system to overly struggle.
If anything we should always seek to come up with clever ways to take the load of hospital systems and allow them to provide timely and adequate medical services, and minimise the likelihood of long wait times and forced reduction of quality care.
This is especially critical in countries with universal/public healthcare systems, where an influx of immigrants can lead to increased demand for general practitioners and specialists, as well as hospital services.
Unemployment benefits are another major concern. An over-influx of immigrants can lead to higher competition for jobs, potentially escalating unemployment rates on a continuous basis, which works against the workers native to a country.
Consequently, more people may rely on unemployment benefits, putting additional financial strain on the national and states fiscal systems.
Public Housing and rental assistance benefits can also become a contentious issue. Over-immigration can drive up demand for affordable housing, leading to unforgiving housing shortages and overly increased sale and rental prices.
This situation can cause significant distress for low-income families and individuals who depend on public housing and government rental assistance.
The rapid increase in immigration could lead overcrowded housing, multiple families living in small homes and a surge in demand for social housing, putting immense pressure on the country’s welfare system to provide adequate living conditions.
Increased strains on social welfare systems due to over-immigration poses challenges that can sadly cause harm to people and render once healthy public systems ineffective.
Countries must carefully plan many years ahead before pressing the ‘go button’ on immigration policies. The possible consequences must be better examined and the likelihood frequency to ensure that social services remain sustainable and effective for all residents.
By understanding and addressing these issues via a transparent planning phase that seeks input from private industry experts, nations can better mitigate against any risks and possible harmful effects of over-immigration on avoid a potential breakdown of social welfare systems.
Job Market Saturation and Economic Hardship.
A poorly thought out over-influx of immigrants into a country can significantly impact the job market, often leading to job saturation and economic hardship for both immigrants and native population.
As the number of job seekers increases, the competition for available positions intensifies, making it increasingly difficult for individuals to secure employment.
This heightened competition can result in higher constantly increasing unemployment rates and reduced wages, ultimately affecting the overall economic stability of the country.
An over-influx of immigrants during a time that a country is already experiencing economic hardship and an overly-strained the job market could lead to an economic downturn, further exacerbating a troubling economic situation. This could easily lead to severe economic hardships for far too many people.
This could also make it difficult for new immigrants to understand why they were invited along in the first place. The last thing they would have wanted is to move to a country that is incapable of employing and accommodating them.
I think what we need to understand is that economic hardship extends beyond just unemployment and wage reductions. The increased competition for jobs can also lead to underemployment, where individuals are forced to take positions that do not match their skills or qualifications.
You can end up with a situation whereby you have a false-positive with the employment rates. If you were to only look at the big picture, you could feel somewhat relaxed about the employment situation but in reality, when you break it all down, you see quite a different story.
An under-utilisation of talent in key areas can hinder economic growth and reduce overall productivity.
Additionally, the strain on social services and public resources can further compound the economic challenges faced by both immigrants and native citizens, making it essential for policymakers to consider the potential consequences of over-immigration on the job market and economy.
Housing Shortages and Rising Costs.
This is a very difficult situation to talk about as it is hard not to think of young children being negatively affected in this area.
One of the most immediate and tangible impacts of over-immigration is the strain it places on the housing market.
As more people enter a country, the demand for housing naturally increases. However, if the supply of housing does not keep pace with this growing demand, it results in significant shortages.
The imbalance between supply and demand creates a highly competitive market, making it increasingly difficult for both immigrants and native citizens to secure affordable housing.
This subject gets further complicated if the recipient country of over-immigration is experiencing record numbers of building companies collapse in an economy that has record high interest rates, record high cost of base materials required for building accommodation and lacking business incentives.
This very unfortunate situation can often be traced back to the cost per unit of electricity in that country.
Cheap electricity is the base building block for manufacturing and if for instance the cost of electricity at a country has increased 400%, then the cost of manufacturing building materials will naturally increase proportionally.
When the cost of base materials for building is overly excessive at a time where people cannot afford to absorb these costs into the costs of accommodation, then the building of accommodation is no longer a good idea.
You can end up with people that should be building homes working in other industries because they just wish to be able to feed their families.
These issues are not restricted to the cities and major population centres. This can also affect rural areas and if sending new immigrants out into rural areas is thought of as a band-aid solution to over-crowding and under-accommodation of city areas, then this whole idea fall apart.
Forcing overcrowding of regional towns will soon lead to skyrocketing property prices and rental rates in these areas that may have been identified as accommodation sanctuaries.
This whole unpleasant situation only causes additional financial strain on the entire country and exacerbates social tensions and could cause unprecedented divides.
The harsh ripple effects of housing shortages are profound. A rise in housing costs can lead to increased commuting times as people are forced to live farther from their places of work.
This, in turn, results in greater traffic congestion and increased environmental pollution in areas that were once unspoiled.
Moreover, the quality of life diminishes as individuals spend more of their income on housing than is practical or sustainable, leaving less for other essentials such as medication, healthcare, education and paying excessively high electricity prices..
Governments might think they can attempt to address these issues by raising purchase orders for building companies to construct new houses and units.
However, if too many of the building companies in your country have gone insolvent due to the excessively high base cost of building materials which we now know is linked to the excessively high electricity costs, then those purchase orders are of zero value.
They might try rent control but this will then discourage property developers, which will then force even more building companies to go out of business.
Unless the underpinning cost of electricity is addressed, there will not be any overcoming the accommodation issues.
Cultural Tensions and Social Unrest.
Poorly planned over-immigration at a time of economic hardship can significantly impact the social fabric of a nation, often giving rise to constantly increasing cultural tensions and social unrest.
I think the problems become worse once the populace work out what is underpinning the worse of the problems.
I guess people could or would feel that if they have been able to work it out, then why isn’t anything substantial being done about it.
When a country experiences a sudden influx of immigrants at a time in that countries existence that is least able to deal with it, the existing population may feel very upset by the rapid changes in their communities.
These changes can strain community relations, particularly if there is a general understanding that electricity costs have been and still are the reason they feel the fabric of society is breaking down.
It will be scary for any people that are not yet homeless if they have little to no confidence that the future for them and their family may not involve becoming homeless.
Especially if these people are immigrants and were invited to come and live in this country, that just does not seem fair.
Nor will it be fair for people that have lived in the host country their whole lives and had for the most part experienced a reasonably normal existence.
If they now have to feel that they can no longer afford to live in a home, let alone be able to afford to move to a rural location that might have partially cheaper accommodation.
Many people could end up feeling that there is just nowhere to turn.
As it would turn out, electricity costs might then actually be the most important initial planning project for any country that either intends to instigate immigration or wondering whether they should continue with immigration.
If the cost of doing business in your country is so high that builders are going out of business, then I might suggest that a country do everything they can to fix the underlying problems.
Fiscal Burden on Government and Infrastructure Deficit.
The impact of over-immigration on a nation’s fiscal health cannot be overstated. When immigration rates surpass the capacity of government resources, a significant financial strain is placed on national and local budgets.
This increased demand necessitates expanded public services and this will require building new public service buildings.
However, if your country is already faced with major issues with the building industry, then there’s quite possibly little chance of getting those buildings constructed.
This will extend to the build of schools, if you cannot build more schools then you need to try and squeeze more students into smaller spaces and that may not work very well.
Fix The Underpinning Electricity Generation Costs and Fix Manufacturing.
How you might set about fixing the cost per unit of electricity at your country will depend on what natural resources you have that can be used for electricity generation and how expensive it is for your country to extract those resources and then put them to work generating electricity.
For instance, if your country has plentiful natural gas reserves in the ground, this could work out well.
When you consider the options for generating electricity 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, then there’s only a few to select from:
1. Gas Fired Power Stations (simple cycle and combined cycle).
3. Nuclear Reactor Power Stations.
Then you need to look these 3 options and then consider of these, which could we build and commission the fastest?
I can help with this answer a little as I’ve done some research and form what I’ve been able to learn, the typical construction timeline for building a new gas fired power station from scratch has 2 time frames:
1. A simple cycle gas fired power station can take as long as 4-5 years
2. A combined cycle gas-fired power station can take as long as 5-6 years.
It all comes down to the red and green tape that you wrap these projects up in and how much electricity you want that power plant to produce.
For instance, the Tallawarra Power Station is a combined cycle natural gas-fired power plant located near Shellharbour, New South Wales, Australia.
It has a total generating capacity of 435 megawatts (MW). It was commissioned in 2009 and it is owned and operated by Energy Australia.
It uses two Siemens SGT-800 industrial gas turbines and one Siemens steam turbine in a combined cycle configuration.
The two gas turbines each have a capacity of around 175 MW, while the steam turbine adds an additional 85 MW.
It is a highly efficient combined cycle plant, with an overall thermal efficiency of around 52%.
The plant can provide enough electricity to power approximately 400,000 average Australian homes when operating at full capacity.
It is connected to the eastern Australian electricity grid and provides power to customers in New South Wales and potentially other states during times of high demand.
It only took 23 months (nearly 2 years) to build from break the surface of the ground it is located on to having it synchronized to the grid.
Building A Gas Fired Power Station Is Not a Problem, That Part Is Easy.
The problems a country will face with trying to rapidly increase baseload electricity generation options is how long it takes to get to the point where you are scraping away topsoil at the beginning of the construction phase.
This is the sad part and it can take far too long in some countries, especially if they are facing an energy crisis, here’s an overview:
1. Planning and permitting: This stage involves site selection, environmental impact assessments, acquiring necessary permits and approvals from regulatory authorities, and securing project financing.
a. This process can take 1-2 years or longer, depending on your country, the proposed build location and complexity of the project.
b. Let’s allow 3 years for worst case scenario.
2. Engineering and design: Once the 3 years of planning and permitting phases are complete, the detailed engineering and design work can begin.
a. This includes designing the power plant layout, specifying equipment and materials, and developing construction plans.
b. This stage typically takes 6 months to a year.
c. Let’s allow 18 months worst case (we are now at 4.5 years).
3. Procurement: After the design phase, the procurement of major equipment, such as gas turbines, generators, and other components, can begin.
a. This process can take several months if there are no issues with sourcing materials from the manufacturing sector.
b. This is the major concern and it can be very hard to predict.
c. Let’s allow 12 months (we are now at 5.5 years).
How long to build once all the red and green tape as been overcome and everything you need to build a gas fired power station is in your country?
1. Construction: Once the major equipment is ordered, site preparation and construction can commence.
a. This phase duration all depending on what type of gas fired power station you wish to build, the capacity you want from it and whether construction will be interrupted due to unforseen circumstances.
b. The construction phase for a 500MW single cycle plant could take 1-2 years, for a combined cycle plant, it could take 2-3 years.
c. If you require 2 gigawatts or more, you would be looking at a large scale combined cycle plant and for this sort of capacity you could be looking at 4 years of construction if there’s not any interruptions.
d. Let’s just say we only need 500MW and we’ll take the fastest build option which is single cycle.
e. We’ll need to allow 2 years (we are now at 7.5 years).
2. Commissioning and grid connection: After construction is complete, the plant must undergo rigorous testing, commissioning, and integration with the electrical grid.
a. This final phase can take several months but let us allow 12 months (we are now at 8.5 years).
What can we do to speed things up and overcome the energy crisis?
Take a very large pair of scissors out of the cupboard and cut up all of your green and red tape and then place that tape in the recycle bin.
Do everything possible to assist with making the pre-construction phases happen as quickly as possible.
Do everything possible to ensure no construction delays are encountered.
Look for interim solutions to build in additional 24/7 baseload electricity and keep the lights on at night such as:
1. Poop To Power Plants, read my article about this.
2. Get all houses that have solar power currently being fed into the grid provided with BlueGen Power Cells, read my article about these units.
a. This will involve connecting them to the natural gas pipeline system, so there’s the cost of the units themselves plus the cost of running natural gas to accommodation areas that don’t have it.
b. Option 1 is that your government could pay for all of this to get it done fast and not expect the homeowners to pay for it at all and have that electricity feeding the grid 24/7.
c. Option 2 would be for the government to still provide it all for free at the start but then have a 5 year interest free payback plan.
d. This to me is the fastest way possible to build up 24/7 baseload electricity capacity and drive down the cost of electricity, which will in turn fix your manufacturing cost situation, which will fix your building industry, which will fix your housing crisis.
For my mind, it’s all about being Rational Thinking Humans.
Do the right type of work (planning) at the right level of quality (governance) and implement the right type of actions without impediment (great governance).
