The irony being that (from a UK perspective at least), in the absence of immigration, childcare and senior care would be even less affordable than they are.
Somebody has to do this work: it's essential, as well as hard, unglamorous and badly paid, and societies must take their pick from:
- Family members, almost always women, who have to give up paid work.
- Paid labour from less educated parts of their existing/indigenous population.
- Migrant labour, whether temporary or permanent.
The great mistake of Brexit is that the UK has now replaced temporary migrant labour (Poles and so on, who'd mostly come here in their early/mid 20s, stay for ten/fifteen years and then go home to raise families and be closer to their elders) with permanent migrants from much poorer countries who won't want to go back if they can at all avoid it.
Somebody has to do this work: it's essential, as well as hard, unglamorous and badly paid, and societies must take their pick from:
- Family members, almost always women, who have to give up paid work.
- Paid labour from less educated parts of their existing/indigenous population.
- Migrant labour, whether temporary or permanent.
The great mistake of Brexit is that the UK has now replaced temporary migrant labour (Poles and so on, who'd mostly come here in their early/mid 20s, stay for ten/fifteen years and then go home to raise families and be closer to their elders) with permanent migrants from much poorer countries who won't want to go back if they can at all avoid it.