Why is there so much more anti immigration sentiment NOW?

I think you are right that things have changed though I am unsure if it is new or whether we just see it more due to social media.

There is a pattern throughout history that when people feel resources are squeezed, they turn against the "other" in society. The biggest example in recent history is Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.

The fact is there are some genuine reasons for people to not want migration including wage stagnation, difficulties accessing basic services, housing etc. That said, the fault lies with successive governments not prioritising infrastructure because, frankly, that doesn't reap rewards for years and they are normally out of office by then.

The elephant in the room is also that there have been a number of murders in the UK in recent years and the perpetrators have been from minority backgrounds (not all of them obviously!) and so people's cognitive biases lead them to think Muslim = terrorist, which is demonstrably ludicrous.

TLDR: When resources become scarce, people resort to blaming and demonising the "other". This isn't new.

And therein lies the problem. This is the attitude of the majority of the political elite in this country.

An issue for politicians rn is they can't address the underlying issues, not within their political remit for this current gov. So they can only try for other headlines which won't do anything.

And without doing that pressure will go up. As it does mounting tactics will be used to close that down, including what you see on here

In the end voters will just vote in change, look at the EU going through the same

Do you know a lot of immigrants are living in unfit conditions and contrary to belief they have barely anything to live on.

When you have the likes of Trump and Farrage egging people on what do you expect?

Propaganda and indoctrination. It's terrifyingly similar to the 1930s.

It's because the World is getting over populated.
Too many people for some countries to feed and house - so they swarm to other places which are also under pressure for housing, green space.
Some newcomers expect medical services and education while the long term residents are paying higher taxes.

People are more aware of needing to preserve wild animal and bird habitats and to leave waterways and bushland as pristine as can be.

People want low milage food to eat. They like their own farmers to grow vegetables under strict health guidelines instead of eating imported crap.
No one likes to see concrete poured over meadows.
The trees and the environment want to stay flourishing - it means clearer air for us all.

It's best for people to stay where they are born, if they can, and do their best to plant trees and not consume too much during their lifetime. If every country looked after the needs of their own environment well and discouraged over population people would not want to leave their homeland and culture . War and invasion sometimes puts a stop to people caring for their trees and water. Then people flood out to cause havock on neighbouring countries.

Then those neighbours are upset.
It's not rocket science. If people see destruction of fields and disrespect for their culture out of their windows they are sad.

Because this country is sinking and being bled dry.

It’s the blame game

it used to be teenage girls getting pregnant and getting all the housing

And therein lies the problem. This is the attitude of the majority of the political elite in this country.

So you don't think people can have legitimate concerns about nearly a million people (net) moving here in one year when we already have a housing shortage?

This. There is still a lot of racism out there in "polite society". And people are polite, but what they say in private is a totally different thing. Social media exposes it in a way people did not see before.

New Labour virtually invented "racist dogwhistles about immigration" as a distraction tactic. That mealymouthed phrase "legitimate concerns" first came out of Yvette Cooper's mouth.

Anyway yes, the answer is decades of increasingly hysterical right-wing media frothing about immigrants exploiting, on the one hand, liberal complacency about how "racism doesn't exist any more", and on the other the racism that had never gone away in Britain. Politicians trying to placate that frothing and eventually just jumping on the bandwagon. And here we are.

People haven't always arrived in small dinghies or hid in lorries though. They also didn't destroy papers, if they had them.

What are you talking about, "day one" of immigration? 🤔 There has always been movement and displacement of people. Nations and the idea of borders are newer.

It’s been part of the public discourse since day one of immigration, that some people didn’t agree with immigration. I don’t accept that people couldn’t or didn’t speak about it in the past. People were often talking about it is my memory. It perhaps depends on which circles you move in.

I honestly don’t think that racism or anti-immigration is any better or worse. I’m white so my perception comes from that angle. In the eighties and nineties I remember plenty of it anyway from some family members, and having arguments with them. Most of them would be perfectly pleasant to anyone non-white they met in their daily life. I also remember going on package holidays and feeling like everyone we met wanted to dribble on about immigration once they had a drink, and always seemed to assume you would agree with them. With social media it’s just that you can see it.

Labour's approach has only increased support for Reform. People seem to be sidestepping the impact of that

It has gone up since the GE

It’s not about hate, it’s about lack of resources to accommodate the population already here. If we can’t make life at least reasonable for most right now, then how the hell does adding hundreds of thousands more to the mix annually help those already here?

The whole concept of race and is the distraction used to try and hush people from having an opinion. The vast majority of people that take issue with having so many more people here don’t care about skin colour or race and they felt the same about the open EU borders, when the majority of people coming here where white. That’s why Brexit happened because folk were fed up and voted to leave. So all this nonsense of hate and racism is just a smoke screen for the I’m alright Jack far left.

The public spoke years ago about mass immigration and were practically laughed at and Brexit was a mockery. All peope want is a descent life for their families and right now that’s so far away from reality that reform will be voted in next because no other government have given two shits…

It was deliberately whipped up by various political parties as a distraction and the media have gobbled it up and given it voice and traction it should never have got. Even Labour have given it credence when they shouldn't have.

The vast majority of poor people have more in common with each other than they do with the rich, that's why it's so important they're manipulated into hating the wrong people.

Ghettos has nothing to do with white or non-white. It has to do with poverty, crime and anti-social behaviour. Places where the police can't safely go, where women can't safely walk alone, where the amazon driver has to lock their van to walk to the postbox. Where people are regularly stabbed or beaten up. Where no one with money would choose to live - they move away leaving only the struggling behind.

I always find it remarkable how in some occupations skills shortages mean golden hellos, bonuses, high wages - "because their worth it" attitude.

Shortages in care and it's- "why don't people do these unsocial hours for minimum wage and be barely any better off than they are on benefits- if at all, after losing housing benefit, council tax benefit, free prescriptions, free school meals...etc" somehow in care paying a wage that attracts people to work in the sector doesn't feature like it does on other sectors. If you couldn't recruit a programmer you would increase the salary and henefits package offered. More people would want to work in care if you make the job in any way more attractive.

i dont care about unintegrated communities or whatever else. people will always stick to those who understand them and are more familiar, it's natural. immigrants are a mixed bag of people, some decent people who work hard, some exceptionally brilliant people, and some grifters and some awful people, just like any other group.

however, when we continue to import more people than we can feasibly feed and house in this country, life will become very difficult for everybody - "natives" (using that term loosely), second- and third-generation immigrants, and fresh immigrants alike.

as for why it's become an issue "now" (it's been a contentious issue for ages, but i suppose it is particularly prominent now) -- perhaps people are fed up of the promises of how great and wonderful everything will be while their material quality of life continues to diminish? not that immigration is probably the cause of this, but for the vast majority of people here, is it a net positive in their lives?

As well as the quantity, the nature of immigration has changed as well.

British Indians, until very recently, had the highest average earnings of all ethnic groups in Britain. The longstanding communities of British Indians who arrived in the 1950s, particularly those who came via Kenya/Uganda, are a textbook example of a successful, entrepreneurial and well integrated minority group.

But in the last couple of years, the average earnings of British Indians have collapsed and now sit well below white Brits in the statistics. This, of course, is nothing to do with the established communities but with the hundreds of thousands of low skilled, poorly paid arrivals from India since 2020.

Importing large groups of low skilled, poorly paid people into a welfare state with large wealth transfers has consequences. It makes the existing population poorer, however unpalatable that is, and at some point it makes the welfare state unsustainable, because there are far more people taking than paying in.

Exactly! It’s so true.

I also think though there is some bias created by the media. Some seem very happy to push a narrative about racism being worse than ever, but that's not an empirical claim - it is based on an ideology. So they are very eager to spotlight that narrative as much as possible.