[Jamie89]

Originally Posted by Brillopad

Or it costs the NHS, police etc a fortune for interpreters. Why should we help people who won't help themselves.

Is it a fortune? It's a small number of people to start with, and then a smaller number who wind up in a situation where they need an interpreter, it doesn't strike me as something that would cost a lot in the grand scheme of things.
And if they need help, we help them because of the benefits they and their future generations can bring to the country (as well as being because they want to improve their lives), there's a lot of british people today who work and pay into the system and boost our economy who live here because they had ancestors who emigrated here.