Immigration - can someone please explain it to me in simple terms?

Same with me never going back to Birmingham. Shithole now.

Coupled with the fact that yesterday the RNLI and border force were too busy escorting small boats over that they had to ask other services to help a couple of boats in trouble.

It’s very costly to have high irregular migration numbers.

The whole system is very expensive and then you have the downside of criminal gangs profiting.

At least with visas we see benefits in higher university fees or care jobs.

Can someone who understands explain to me a) what is the problem with immigration

It started when Blair allowed new EU members from EE to come unfettered to the UK. People, especially trades, got fed up with lowered wages and increased competition. Businesses were advertising in EE countries for cheap labour.

b) why hasn’t any government been able to have an acceptable policy that works

Businesses want cheap labour and universities want foreign students as they charge them a lot of money. Immigration went from around 250k during Blair's tenure to 1m under the Tories.

c) is immigration just something for people to whinge about

No. We have a housing crisis and wage stagnation. In fact we prop up low wages with UC.

Increased immigration puts a strain on underfunded resources. However we have an aging population and fewer tax payers. The NHS has a huge number of vacancies.

It was never as bad as it is today. My family lived close in the 50s and 60s and it was their nearest "go to" city that was prosperous and vibrant. Yes, there were immigrants but they were working in the mills and factories etc. Over the years/decades, it's just gone down and down and is now a pretty unpleasant place. I last went a couple of years ago and couldn't believe the filth and squalor - and the huge number of angry looking young blokes hanging around on street corners, and all the money laundering shops, barbers, etc with "bouncers" standing guard outside and top of the range cars parked on the forecourt! I'll not be going back!

@DownsideUpside is correct. Also worth remembering the percentage of irregular migrants (mostly arriving on small boats right now) as a proportion of the overall figure. In 2024 net migration was 431,000 - 44,000 of this was irregular migration so about 10%. Not an insignificant figure of course, but from the rhetoric online and in the media, you'd think those figures were the reverse.

Try this thread OP for one problem associated with immigration being badly managed. Basically British doctors have to compete for jobs in their own country with the rest of the world whilst every other country (except possibly Ireland) prioritises its own workers.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5337022-junior-doctors-unemployment-in-august

At least when we were in the EU we had the right to go and work in other countries.

No idea why the Conservatives did it. Just not very competant and easy prey for lobby groups?

Just here to add that “illegal” immigration aka asylum seekers is newspaper rhetoric. In order to seek asylum you have to enter the country, and there is no illegal way to do that, only offical and unofficial.

Yes, but I think its always been that way.

Have you guys ever been to Bradford?

We also have the issue that a millionaire has left the uk every 45 minutes since Labour came to power. More HNW individuals leaving more low skilled people coming in not good not as much tax collected more pressure on public services it’s a bloody mess

I also strongly object to us giving nhs dr speciality training posts to overseas doctors, when there are not enough for our own uk medics.

This a) steals doctors who've often been trained at great expense from poorer countries, which i find morally bankrupt, and b) also means that a hefty chunk of uk junior doctors, educated at huge state/nhs expense, can't get a training post.

Im not a doctor but have read up this recently (there are statistics publically available) after hearing about it on here, and was frankly horrified by the numbers.

I live in a working midlands town. It’s very diverse. We have established polish, Romanian and Indian communities. These people are friendly integrated and get on. No issues really however the landscape of the town has changed immensely. Loads of ethnic food shops which are very interesting to visit. But all in other languages so it’s pot luck to what you are buying which can be fun. They have incredible fruit and veg. We do have issues with money laundering / illegal shops; recently Turkish style barbers and there’s a row which sell counterfeit goods and have blokes standing in the door ways. Hideous array of vape shop, bright stickered shop fronts and neon lights (that’s the councils fault really). So it looks drastically different to what it did even 10 years ago even with the type of good migration people refer to.

In terms of the more classically unwanted migration; all the country hotels have closed around us and been replaced with migrant hotels. There’s one with about 600 who are families and that one is not a problem for most people. They keep themselves to themselves.

There is a smaller one of around 150 male migrants and that one is constantly causing issue. Loitering and drinking in local parks. Gathering in groups etc. Whether this is a risk or not people do not like it and won’t let their children walk back from school or to the park.

Anecdotally things which have been going on the past month crime/ antisocial wise:
There’s a poor old man who’s some kind of homeless vagrant with mental health issues. He’s living in a church yard and doesn’t speak English but had stayed in the migrant hotel so returns to nearby. No service seems to be able to help him. it’s been months.

There was a big fight in town between Kurdish youth and English youth groups. Random bystanders scared and crying.

There’s a random woman with I assume mental health issues who keeps smacking people over the head from behind in isolated areas. Quite a few have ended up in hospital getting their skulls glued. This woman is white but no one seems to know her (small town) and if it turns out they have a clearly foreign surname then again it’s this type of thing which makes people anti immigration.

So in short; in some areas things are changing a lot. Fast. That’s social and cultural not even service based or access to housing, work etc. And this area isn’t a bastion of British social uprightness. It’s a working class town. It’s scummy in places and has its own typically white British problems. But I think the sentiment is generally we don’t need more additional problems. We do have enough already.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-25933699

cost of translation services. Honestly just google this stuff….

www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2720n2kkjo

www.google.com/search?q=cost+of+housing+foreign+prisoners&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

It is not racist. The problem with the amount of immigration is the lack of housing and the cost to public services. Translation, housing, legal costs, crime and unfortunately cost of housing prisoners. Some immigration is good but the country can’t sustain the current level of immigration.

My first hand experience of immigration was when my partners sister arrived at Heathrow and asked to seek asylum.

Disabled - both mentally and physically - how she ever got to Heathrow I will never know, but she did.

She stayed with us for a month, then she was placed in a home for the mentally disabled, after being assessed.

She couldn't get an operation to repair a hole in her heart in her own country after being on a waiting list for many years. She had the operation after a year of being here. She was having psychotic episodes in her own country because she couldn't get access to medication. She received it straight away here.

She gets three meals a day, here own spacious room and her energy bills are paid for. She is a priority for housing and will receive a rented flat in the near future.

She's been here for two and a half years and most probably will never work in this country - she's not even 50 years of age. She is very grateful to the UK for the chance of the life she could only have dreamt of back home.

From her disabled benefits she is able to send money home to her aged mother and realises she is just one of many people who have never worked in the UK because they able aren't to, but receive a life they would never have had in their country.

When my partner went with her to get her leave to remain in the UK and the first steps to receive a UK passport, she was placed in a queue with mainly younger men. She overheard two officers talking. They commented how 'Most of these are criminals in their own country but we give them asylum'.

Why comment if you haven't seen what's happening first-hand yourself.

As far as I can see, we are making it harder for the immigrants with degrees and a good education and easier for those without.

Yep.

The only people I know who complain about immigration are the racist types who have never tried to get a job in their lives.

🙄

Legal migration is tricky because we rely on it for universities and things like care work.

Irregular or sometimes known as illegal migration is incredibly hard to fix as you have international laws to circumvent. Only one or two countries have handled it, although once they do the electorate tend to not vote the policies out.

You don’t write like an ignorant person. You are clearly educated.
Please don’t fish. Do your own research.

After 5 years though depending on where you are from. You can claim public funds and that is a huge issue! If you earn a low wage but then start a family in England.