Politicians generally are uncomfortable with talking about immigration for fear of being labelled or whipping up unsavoury public sentiment.
There was certainly a big focus in Tynwald on putting to bed misconceptions about for example asylum seekers and about the undoubted benefits that - controlled - migration can have for an economy.
But the overwhelming tone was one of ‘we know best’ and an acceptance that no system can be perfect.
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Here are a few facts that were never once mentioned during the debate.
- There has been widespread abuse of the immigration system in recent years.
- Hundreds of visas were issued to a company actively encouraged by government to set up a new HQ here and which is now the focus of a major police investigation into international money laundering.
- Chinese migrants were employed in a pig butchering scam that operated from a former hotel close to Douglas seafront.
- Dozens of visas were reportedly revoked after an island eGaming firm was raided earlier this year.
- The island’s eGaming sector has been infiltrated by gangsters from SE Asia and used to wash the proceeds of scam compounds employing trafficked labour in countries such as Cambodia.
- There are 10 active police investigations into global money laundering with multiple raids and arrests and £300m of assets seized.
- A review of historical visa applications is underway to identify patterns of concern.
You wouldn’t know any of this if you had only listened to the Tynwald debate or if you hadn’t read Isle of Man Today’s extensive coverage of these extraordinary developments.
The first part of tackling a problem is to acknowledge the scale of the problem that exists. Our politicians could do well to recognise this.