Hillman avenger wrote:The drain in terms of education, healthcare, etc, is thought to be lower in immigrants than in "the rest of us"
For various reasons
The majority are young, unmarried and coming from societies where healthcare is only for the rich ( I suppose that includes the US, come to think of it).
https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-immigrat ... ssure-nhs/
The major drain on the NHS is the ageing population where people typically have several conditions, some of them chronic, and once in the hospital system end up "bed-blocking" because of inadequate social care.
Not wanting to divert too much from your pinocchio(sp) moment above (I too would like to read more of this don quixote roadtrip
), - the very notion of including pensions into the cost comparison when looking at migration is just another despicable diversion by the establishment, and one which people like you gladly grasp, for some strange reason.