Why is there so much more anti immigration sentiment NOW?

Teacher was quite insistent she must have drawn them on as they are so thick.

That teacher is a bit dim, but it’s a stretch to call that racist. In an era of ‘high definition brows’ there is probably a uniform policy disallowing them and the teacher couldn’t tell the difference.

Maybe the program starting on ch4 right now will be interesting!

Yes. And as such, you should be bound in to working for the NHS for years after your training.

Same for doctors. The UK has a good education system to produce healthcare professionals. We should have scholarships for UK nationals and pay them handsomely for their work.

@GreyWasp , just to say middle class black and brown children also face racism, so you and your father were just fortunate.
The latest aggression I heard off was a teacher insisting a mixed White/Sri Lankan student wipe her eyebrows off. Teacher was quite insistent she must have drawn them on as they are so thick. She's also 'white-passing'(hate that term), in an elitist private school and considered herself quite fortunate; until that incident.

This may also prove useful...

https://theconversation.com/how-stereotyping-increases-during-economic-crises-213295

I understood the point perfectly

I will never understand the logic of making it harder and prohibitively expensive for British people to train as nurses. The practice of importing nursing staff who have been trained by poorer countries while simultaneously cutting off the potential social mobility of a career in nursing here is wrong in so many ways.

^

Agreed. It should be free (and paid) to train as a nurse, HCP, teacher or early childhood educator

Sounds like your dad integrated

Recent immigrants don't seem to integrate as much

Recent immigrants seem to be young, male and aggressive towards women

Recent immigrants don't seem to always have a good work ethic, unlike many who came over generations ago to fill the need for workers after WW2

Recent immigrants seem to create their own ghettos - i.e. Stoneyholme in Nelson, Bradford

A quick look at the census data from 1970 (when the UK had 55.5m people and a growth rate of 0.41% annually) to 2020 (when it hit 68.4m, with much higher growth, fuelled by immigration) indicates the speed and scale of the population increase. In addition, bear in mind that organisations like the supermarkets (using data generated via their loyalty card schemes) and water companies have argued that the real population numbers could actually be 5 million higher than the official ONS figures, and it's not hard to see where the stresses are coming from.

One town I know reasonably well is Banbury, because my late mum moved there in 1993. When she moved there it was a smallish market town with (IIRC) Europe's largest cattle market and the population of Cherwell was 117,000; thirty years later, the population is over 171,000 thanks to the M40 corridor and the development that has exploded.

@Fordian your post made me laugh so much and I know it wasn't the intent. I think it was the bit about reading eyeballs on a scan 😆.

I really don't fully understand this and others will know so much more. Is this staffing issue because it's less costly this way, because we actually have no British staff available. I don't fully appreciate reasons.

Having been in hospital so often I am usually treated by someone not UK born and wonder how the NHS would function at all without the overseas staff.

I don't buy the argument that UK born people are just lazy either as the reason.

@Fordian

It’s frustrating that the entry grades for medicine are so high & so many students don't get onto courses. Then there is apparently a shortage & so we advertise abroad. Surely we would be better training our own young people? The young people I teach are really keen on NHS jobs. Plus they don't need to bring lots of dependents.

There's a bit of head in the sand with numbers going up and some politicians ignoring that

Then you get politicians reacting eg Italy, Germany, US and some pretty big shifts happen

It's not just a U.K. thing. And it's likely to keep increasing until a country looks at changing laws

This level of immigration from predominantly developing countries working in low wage sectors has put significant pressure on existing wages as well as access to housing and public services

I am involved in an advocacy/support charity where I often assist a vulnerable person in claiming benefits. In our local office (not sure if this is a national thing) UC claimants are all having their interviews/meetings in full sight/hearing of those waiting, so I've heard many a conversation. One very interesting one was a woman who looked mid 30s telling her work coach that she's desperate to get a job and her dream job is to be a care assistant, but there aren't any available. The WC immediately turned her computer screen around and pointed out a list of vacancies, to which the woman replied you need at least 5 years experience for all of them. Again, WC must have highlighted ones that don't require this and woman said she has depression and can only work in certain nursing homes So many people say they can't do xyz job because of anxiety/depression. I certainly wouldn't want to work in a home for NMW either, but if local people took these jobs then the government would not have to ship in people from "third world countries".

Yes this is a good example of "contribution" becomes irrelevant.

I don't think racism in the UK will become so evolved as to say "but you are a nice professional so no racism for you". What happens is that anti migration sentiment extends to people whose face does not fit and a majority feel poor.

On the issue of dependents, you could probably address it by making professionals pay to use the education system; despite the moaning the UK has very good schools. They could easily be better funded by additional visa fees.

Social media - especially X & Elon Musk stirring things.

Tony Blair increasing immigration from Eastern Europe closely followed by summer of 2015 when Germany & Sweden invited people from further afield. They have accepted lots but more have made their way here since that summer.

In the 50s 60s 70s immigrants were initially invited here to work & then in the 80s 90s only those who applied could get a visa. Currently people are arriving by boat having destroyed their papers. We have no clue who they are. So how do we go about keeping track of crimes, voting etc

It seems to be lots of single men in their 20s coming over & they get housed in hotels currently. I think people are more sympathetic to older people, women, families. So Ukrainians weren't seen as a bad idea. People also don't want large groups of men hanging around all day & night.

Lack of NHS GP appointments & dentists. Then people discover there is a GP based at the hotel - meanwhile they can't get an appointment. It annoys people when they find out.

I think that it is currently an anti-Islam sentiment as there are lots of males coming from Islamic countries. They don't agree with women dressing in the way many British girls like to dress & so there's a clash of cultures. This isn't the case with black, Hindu, Sikh males. There's a feeling that they don't want to adapt our ways.

Some traditionally working class areas have had a big influx of immigrants. So your families who go to the pub, footie etc are now living alongside families who don't take part in those types of activities. Nor do the kids join in with footie, cubs, class parties, sleepovers etc so people feel a bit threatened by this. They are accused of being racist for wanting to live alongside people who are like them. I imagine the people up top (like Tony Blair) haven't been expected to adapt to new neighbours. So it's one of those NIMBY situations.

I agree with the poster who said that being concerned about undocumented immigrants arriving continuously isn't the same as being racist. However the two are hard to separate. The increase in people arriving is increasing resentment & people who would usually not be racist are getting fed up.

National Front/BNP used to be seen as really far right. Now Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson & co are seen as the only hope as government don't seem to have a handle on the problem.

I think there’s many reasons. We are facing huge amounts of immigration. Since 2018, the number of people arriving on boats has equalled the population on York. People are struggling with housing, with accessing healthcare. Schools are overstretched.

People can see resources becoming scarcer. People are being faced with alternative cultures being embraced whilst their own culture is criticised and hidden. Anything people have tried to raise and concerns they have been shut down. People don’t like being told to shut up, it tends to make them should louder.

Many people are seeing their lives very much affected by the failed experiment of multiculturalism.

There’s a distinct group of people who are refusing to look at integration and it’s making people very protective over their culture and country.

I agree. When people feel frightened or vulnerable it's dog eat dog, e.g who is causing this problem for us.

I think reading SM will make anyone in any vulnerable group feel really shit.

There's no shortage of racist comments and general cruelty to various groups including disabled kids or anyone who looks different. It feels as if people are becoming more and more detached because of SM and their capacity to be really cruel and voice that is in our face more than it ever was.

Just reading YouTube commentary for example makes me regularly ask myself ' is this how people predominantly think '. You have so many people creation their own platforms also on YouTube or other SM and ' reporting ' on things. You can see so many of these people aren't always speaking complete sense but they will have huge audiences.

@EsmaCannonball I could tell you for free that, as a radiographer, I could have trained probably half of our western, English speaking HCAs (with at least GCSEs, a bit of maturity and common sense) to be a safe, routine radiographer to a higher standard than a worryingly large number of my 'international' colleagues.

We'd begun to rely on the HCAs to sidle over to inform us they were seeing unsafe practice happening on another scanner so we, the dwindling number of western trained staff, could swiftly step in an avert disaster.

We should not be demanding 8 GCSEs, 3 A levels and a B.Sc from our own young people when we are employing sub-Saharans as radiographers who cannot identify the eyeballs on a head CT scan.

And, on another raised topic, my established, integrated 'non-indigenous' colleagues share our views on immigration over the past 4-odd years.

I can only imagine it's also negative for the countries who have their trained staff leave to move to the UK

I will never understand the logic of making it harder and prohibitively expensive for British people to train as nurses. The practice of importing nursing staff who have been trained by poorer countries while simultaneously cutting off the potential social mobility of a career in nursing here is wrong in so many ways.

It was the Tories that allowed in nearly 1 million people (net) in one year?

@mumminators Re the NHS, the massive black hole in X-ray staffing due to: the removal of the bursary; endless red-top bad-mouthing of the NHS before Covid, then Brexit has caused huge recruitment from the developing world.

I left my frontline NHS job (very white, very middle class Hampshire) last year because my team went from 100% western-trained 6 years ago to 100% third and developing world 'trained' staff (MRI radiographers who had never seen a working MRI scanner..). It had become dangerous, stressful, poor communication ability, unsafe work practices driving down safety standards for everyone, racist (the Nigerian boys bullying the Filipina girls, the Indian Christians ostracising the Muslims, untackled by management for fear of being labelled racist themselves).

Between the 20 of them, on their base salary of £37k, they'd brought over 60 dependents, mainly younger kids.

Repeat this across the country. These are people's experiences of sudden unintegrated immigration, and I'm talking B6 health-care professionals, here.

The scale of recent immigration, the cost of living (notably housing), poor public services and rise of social media is a perfect recipe for resentment.

The scale of immigration over the last 4 years has been unprecedented. I believe over 3 million net immigrants in 4 years! When even a Labour PM says we have lost control, you have to sit up and listen.

To put into context the scale of immigration, I read more Indians came to UK in the last 4 years than the preceding 15 years. More people from Nigeria came to UK in last 4 years than the preceding 20 years.

As an immigrant myself, I feel British are generally a tolerant people, but they just can't cope with the level of immigration they have experienced in the last 4 years let alone last 20 years.

Most of the recent immigration was driven by low wage vacancies (mainly in social care) along with their dependents. Furthermore, a significant uptick in refugees (notably Ukraine) and illegal immigrants from France (predominantly men from countries with poor track record on women's rights) gives the feeling of unfairness in the system.

This level of immigration from predominantly developing countries working in low wage sectors has put significant pressure on existing wages as well as access to housing and public services.

Because of the scale of immigration over the last 20 years, there is less pressure for new arrivals to integrate. This puts pressure on social cohesion especially between some communities. There is a feeling this country has given up on hard won battles for women's rights, free speech and the removal of religious ideology in driving public policy.

Social media then feeds on the emotional aspects of the debate (eg. Unfairness of allocation of social housing or illegal immigrants living in hotels or anger over the grooming gangs) and so certain influencers gain a lot more attention than would have been possible under the old terrestrial TV model. Social media then feeds back into wider society and so resentment and mistrust grows.

OP - don't know if I answered your question, but think the issues facing UK are no different to many developed countries. I have read similar issues in Canada and Australia. The West is facing an ageing population, massive debt, large scale immigration, high living costs (notably housing), poor public services and lower living standards. There is a general depressed state of affairs in The West, so think people are angrier, poorer and less trusting of each other.

Its also down to the Tories and Farage convincing people it’s immigrants that make them poorer and life harder, not that the super rich are getting offensively rich on the backs of working people and don’t want to pay taxes

This is exactly it, and ironically the British working class have much more in common with the "illegals" (asylum seekers) than they do with those at the top, but the DM serves to keep the anger/rage/panic there to obscure this.

It is a mass generalisation (and incorrect), but these are the Daily mail readers who are spouting off the loudest on social media, frothing up other ignorant people. We don't have enough surgeons, nurses or doctors here because they've had enough of the NHS conditions. Many of my doctor friends have gone to Australia, where the salary and work/life balance is much better apparently. Nursing has a very high attrition rate, my SIL was a nurse and nearly left in her first year post graduation as she was put in front line A&E with very little supervision, and it scared the life out of her. Too much risk and responsibility for not enough remuneration. Care homes, well, no explanation needed there really.

I think some of it is down to austerity and lack of investment in all public services

Its also down to the Tories and Farage convincing people it’s immigrants that make them poorer and life harder, not that the super rich are getting offensively rich on the backs of working people and don’t want to pay taxes.

But a lot down to social media too

The grooming gangs, bombings, two tier kier, “illegal” immigrants, rioting Asian men with knives are constantly brought up on SM and the comments and anti Muslim sentiment is very worrying.

i don’t agree with it at all but sometimes go down rabbit holes on SM to try to understand the “other side”. it is very scary - so many people now think we need our own Trump to presumably take very tough action

We are not having enough children to be able to cope with no immigration. But we might have to stop immigration and as a country take the poverty hit, otherwise I don’t know what will happen.