The Economic Aspect

On the economic side, we must be careful to avoid what Sir Norman Angell has called a murderous fallacy"—that every refugee admitted displaces one of our own people. Almost every competent economist has exploded such a theory. In the early days of the war, the Home Secretary stated in the House of Commons that 11,000 refugees had settled in England and "as a result about 15,000 British workers have been employed who would not otherwise have been employed." Manpower has been added at a time it was sorely needed. Even before the war: it was estimated that £12,000,000 had been invested by refugees in Great Britain alone, in industrial and commercial undertakings.

This may give rise to a question that has often been posed. "Where did this money come from?" Here again, there is a misunderstanding of the term "refugee." Those who ask the question are thinking of refugees in terms of people in rags and tatters, trundling miserable bundles of their last remaining personal possessions in go-carts along country roads The refugees who have been fortunate enough to escape to friendly countries have included many types—some wealthy in kind ("The possession of wealth was the magic wand before which our heavily barred door always swung open"); some wealthy in intellect; some wealthy in industrial and professional skills. This world has received the benefit of such wealth.

Great Britain has a fine record in her treatment of refugees. From the reign of Henry VIII they have found sympathy and understanding. The Flemings and the Walloons, and later the Huguenots, found an open door. James I continued the policy in spite of opposition. "England's gain was France's loss, for we took over great numbers of her most skilled and thrifty citizens. . . . The introduction of the linen industry, of silk weaving, cotton manufacture, the making of lace, of buttons, of glass, the manufacture of earthenware, progress in mining and mechanical knowledge, are all part of the debt that we owe to the industry of these immigrants." (Sir Norman Angell.) A Royal Commission in 1903 found that "the development of the three main industries—tailoring, cabinetmaking and shoemaking—in which aliens engage, has undoubtedly been beneficial in many ways. . . . On the whole we arrive at the conclusion, after weighing evidence on both sides, that it has not been proved that there is any serious direct displacement of skilled English labour."