[throwaway150]

All my immigrant friends are skilled workers who earn more than an average citizen, contribute more taxes and pay exorbitant fees for visa, health surcharge and NIC. I am sure there are immigrants in low paying jobs too. Perhaps we need to talk about different types of immigrants rather than clubbing them all into one "immigrant" category and reinforcing the same tired tropes about immigrants.

[randerson]

This thread is about illegal immigrants. If your friends paid for visas, that would imply they are in a different immigrant category than what we're discussing.

[sfoley]

No it isn't. This line of comments is explicitly in response to your claim:

> Isn't a larger issue the number of immigrants who are NOT contributing to the economy, living at taxpayers' expense

No one has yet mentioned illegal immigrants except you.

In any case it doesn't matter, since GP was specifically replying to:

> In my experience, immigrants have low paying jobs and regularly use cash to avoid paying taxes. Most have no sense whatsoever of cohesion with the country they live in and instead make groups of similar culture that don't really try to fit in.

They were simply giving their own opposite experience on the subject of immigrant wages and taxation, which is equally as valid.

If this thread was actually about illegal immigrants, both comments would be equally off topic. I find it interesting which one you decided to respond to.

[kimixa]

Really "Illegal" immigrants are often a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction - pretty much a rounding error in budgets. But naturally blown up for Politics.

It's not actually particularly nice to live illegally.

[aucisson_masque]

Sure, there are some who end up in high-paying jobs. But the majority end up taking low-paying jobs that regular citizens don't want to take, that's economy 101. If your social group is made of highly skilled and well-paid people, you aren't going to see the mason pouring concrete when it's overheating.