I spoke to one a couple of weeks ago in Calais. He was from Sudan, he had landed in Italy but didn't want to stay there because the locals didn't like immigrants and he could get beaten up, oh and the language was too difficult. I asked him why he didnt want to stay in the South of France (its lovely for focs sake) as he had come through there, he gave the same answer, the people and the language. So I told him that the English don't like illegal immigrants either but he clearly didn't believe me, so I asked why he wanted to get to the UK, and he replied, because it is a good country, he didn't mention benefits, just that it was a good country. So I asked him who he thought paid for the immigrants who got through, he genuinely believed that it was the US and the UN who footed the bill. He said that he wanted to get to the UK then go on to Canada, when I asked him how he was going to get there he didn't know, I think he thought that there was as much traffic between the UK and Canada as there was between the UK and France. It seems to me that these guys believe that we can afford it and we don't mind having them over here.
Oh and one more thing, he got out of Italy on a train, with a ticket which was given to him by officials just to move him on to France. A £50 train fare and the problem is gone, shame we cant do that, but it wouldn't work anyway would it? Why leave when you are going to get everything for free?