Despite all the rhetoric, immigrants make a positive contribution to our society. Here are a few examples

FROM the tone of the referendum debate, people who have arrived in Britain from abroad might think that immigrants are universally regarded as an unwelcome burden on the nation. Well, not everyone feels this way, so I would like to offer my thanks. Thank you to the midwives from Ghana and Australia who helped our eldest daughter into the world through a difficult birth.

Thank you to the GPs, from Syria and Germany, who treat our family at the local NHS clinic.

Thank you to the Egyptian surgeon who operated on me 18 months ago.

Thank you to the nurses and carers, from the Philippines, Bulgaria and elsewhere, who looked after my mother when she was confined to a nursing home with dementia.

Thank you to the Polish builders who did work on our house when three separate English firms couldn’t be bothered to come back with a quote when we invited them to do the work. They finished on time, on budget, cleared up after themselves and even brought their own tea.

Thank you to the Italian staff at Caffe Nero in Piccadilly who greet me cheerfully every day and whose efficient manager would have made a much better prime minister of Italy than Silvio Berlusconi.

Thank you to the colleagues who I have worked with (and who have put up with me) over 30 years from countries including America, Australia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa and Uganda, whose experiences have educated and enlightened me (a hard task, admittedly).

Thank you to all the immigrants who come here, set up businesses, work hard and pay the taxes (their net contribution is positive) that will eventually pay my pension and that of other Britons. All pensions are funded by payments from current workers, which is why it is nice that Britain doesn’t have the same kind of demographic problems faced by other countries with shrinking workforces.

So if you have moved to Britain from elsewhere, please don’t think every person is like Nigel Farage and regards you as a problem. Hopefully, on June 23rd, you’ll find that a majority of Britons have a more positive outlook.