Why is there so much more anti immigration sentiment NOW?

It's been legitimised by the rw press that is so dominant in this country.

Standards of education aren't very high in the U.K. so the people believe any old shit the Daily Mail tells them.

Se need to stop selling arms to enable foreign wars. That's what creates refugees.

We need to allow asylum seekers to work.

@Signalbox

I wish we could choose who we could help. Families, women, children rather than boat loads of young single men. I think this is what scares people

I agree & I would be curious to know whether those in favour of allowing anyone in would be happy if their local hotel got turned into a migrant hotel. I think sometimes it's easy to say it’s the right thing to do when it's not right next door to your house/children's school.

Because the level of immigration is so much greater now. More people are directly affected by the downsides and feel that their views are ignored, so they become more extreme. Its happening all over Europe.

I do wish we could choose who we could help. Families, women, children rather than boat loads of young single men. I think this is what scares people. It's not like we don't have our own epidemic of VAWG, why would we import more of the same from other nations.

I think the point about a kind of Balkanisation is an interesting one. Though I do not the UK is very liberal. More small c Conservative.

@EasternStandard

And then I hear reports from Sudan where mothers do unbearable things to try and protect their dds

It was awful to watch women living in tents having suffered FGM living in fear of being raped. I mean what sort of a life is it for a young girl/woman?

I think it is because of the mass migration started by Blair.
The fact that the native population of Britain will be in the minority some time after 2050 and what that might mean for Liberalism, women's rights, gay rights and the rights of minorities if Parliamentry representation represents this demographic.
The increasing balkanisation of Britain into a patchwork of different ethnicities and beliefs and no longer a cohesive society.

Surely PR would give them more representation that FPTP

Similar to Lib Dems wanting it

They'd get a high number of votes rn but getting seats is harder with FPTP

There are some choices on migration which can be made. I have never seen a government in my lifetime have the appetite to do them. The issue is always the economy and the refusal of a government to accept that they will need to make huge investments in the current British population to skill them up. That always wins.

Reform are supported by about 25% in current opinion polls. Years ago that would be a distant third place (see the SDP/Liberal Alliance in 1983). Nowadays with the support for other than the two historic main parties, that puts them first or second.

If we had a system of PR, they would be marginalised and nowhere near any chance of being in government with that share of the vote.

To add, but can't edit. The issue with getting close to that outcome is seen on all these threads

People can't discuss the necessary changes in law to get there

I have thought this for a while. The current system isn't a good one

And then I hear reports from Sudan where mothers do unbearable things to try and protect their dds

And if we had a controlled humanitarian programme instead of trafficking we could help say 30k (whatever number the electorate want) from situations like that instead

I don't know why I can't paste the link but it's the Guardian, so no paywall. Article has not long been up on the website.

www.<a class="break-all" href="http://www.mumsnet.com/i/netiquettetheguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/04/group-of-labour-mps-urge-no-10-to-be-tougher-on-migration-to-fend-off-threat-from-reform" target="_blank">www.mumsnet.com/i/netiquettetheguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/04/group-of-labour-mps-urge-no-10-to-be-tougher-on-migration-to-fend-off-threat-from-reform

Reform are clearly getting the Government rattled.

There are many pitfalls. For example we have the potential UK India trade deal. India can out compete our own professional classes in sheer numbers in a heartbeat if migration is not managed.

I am not sure the middle class in this country are ready for this kind of competition. It will strongly affect the chances of their own children.

That's one thing alone that would need managing.

The next government we have wlll be right wing; Labour or whoever. It just depends on how far they go

I agree @bombastix - the problem is that if Labour are as ineffective on this issue as the Tories were in government, it’s a shoe-in for Reform at the next GE.

I think this all depends strongly on;

A) remaining in the ECHR
B) who is the next government

If A) is not available then there is very little to stop deportation full stop. A motivated government could make the immigration system and criminal deportations much harder. There are a lot of human rights guarantees operating.

Frankly Labour will never remove them. I do wonder if some other government would.

Crikey. The tide really has turned.

I'm watched the programme about immigration on C4 last night & it showed a refugee camp in Somalia. It was really sad to see & the woman they interviewed said almost all women at the camp had been raped or abused in some way sexually. All had FGM.

Fewer women make it to the UK from Somalia & so essentially we are allowing men into the country who aren't treating their own women nicely. Do we really want the men from these camps coming over to the UK?

I honestly think people would be more supportive of people arriving and being helped if it were women, children & older people.

I don't think many communities want large groups of undocumented males age 20-30 roaming around the area. Is it racist to say I wouldn't want my teenage daughter walking alone past a group like that?

The problem is ethno nationalists jump on quite a few traditional, conservative and even old centrist bandwagons. They’ll post things like you’ll never be British to someone like me commenting on a YouTube video and then on the other hand say oh it’s nothing personal. Well attacking people is personal so I do think there are some real racists out there. And it’s all born from resentment and envy. It’s simply too late to deport based on skin colour and religion. We need practical solutions not racism.

This I post based on a few quotes in this thread. Sorry if it sounds random!

I note Wes Streeting and his comments today re whiteness. The UK is getting this wrong, he's right to point it out. And we don't need people who talk about "anti whiteness" in the NHS either.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/04/nhs-diversity-dei-practices-hindered-misguided-approaches-wes-streeting

Portugal is on my list...

Same here, we last looked into it at the time of Brexit and Portugal was a good option for a golden visa. (Ironic really, since DH’s parents invested all their savings here to secure the right to live in the UK). Not sure whether Portugal is still a good option. DH could work anywhere and I’m 80-90% certain we will head to the US at some point and then possibly retire to the Gulf and/or any parts of mainland Europe that are still inhabitable by then.

Opposition to immigration is no longer limited to the irrational 'fear of other' as some posters suggest. It is rational. We are being pushed into fear of survival. I really am trying to make this as clear as I can.