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

None of these posters have explained it to you op. I am 56 and for first 30 years of my life (late 60s to 90s) people hardly mentioned immigration as it wasn't an issue as was net 50k per annum (and some years was a negative figure I believe). There was good infrastructure, houses were affordable even for youngsters without a degree like me, indeed nearly everyone I know of my age even working class owns their home. The UK economy was good. Then Tony Blair decided to have more immigration for ideological reasons including no delay on free movement from eu countries with much lower standard of living than us which depressed wages and binning the primary purpose rule (look it up). It went up to 300k per annum and housing states getting more expensive, strains on nhs etc. Despite Brexit clearly being linked to public disapproval ofhigh immigration levels the tories took it up to ridiculous levels (1m per annum). There are obviously also cultural issues and links of asylum seekers to Islamic terrorism which we didn't have before (whole other post). Most immigrants coming now are low skilled and a massive negative cost adding to the country's poor financial situation. None of this is the legal immigrants fault but all down to terrible leaders of the past 30 years.

We need foreign workers. But enough bullshitters have convinced large swathes of the population that we don't. And made a lot of money from it.

We haven't had an honest debate on immigration in this country in years because politicians are too scared to tackle it. But not in the way the bullshitters would have you believe

That really doesn't seem to be why the nhs is crumbling. Have a read of the junior doctors thread.

We don't have an absolute lack of doctors and nurses. The NHS just doesn't have enough money to employ enough of them.

Obviously however Brexit has made us poorer and at the same time immigration has increased. So not the most sucessful idea.

G.o.a.d.y

They basically ignore the immigration they like.

The NHS is crumbling because of the restrictions placed on migrant workers and the inhospitability they now feel post-Brecht.

Hmmmmm

There's some info here with graphs which show how recent years have had a huge increase: https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/long-term-international-migration-flows-to-and-from-the-uk/

The Tories, despite their rhetoric, are ideologically committed to high immigration to suppress wages, it is in their interests. However, can increasing demand for care work be met by UK workers? Some arguments like "well obviously it will always be a poorly paid job with terrible conditions so we have to get foreign workers" feel very accepting of exploitation to me.

The boats on the south coast are a humanitarian nightmare and need to be stopped. I don't know how we stop it but this can't be allowed to continue, children have drowned and it will happen again.

I am not against immigration at all but Labour need to reduce the net numbers that the Tories allowed, otherwise Reform will get in and I really think that would be a disaster.

I think it’s based on many of the following reasons

1. When people are struggling financially and they may be struggling to find a job they think that allowing people to emigrate to the UK will mean less jobs for them. (Untrue, of course)
2. People who live in areas where high numbers of illegal immigrants, mainly men, are housed can feel less safe to those living in those areas.
3. Xenophobia
4. Racism
5. The ridiculous belief that all immigrants are illegal AND are on benefits. Clearly if they are illegal they can’t be on benefits.

This list is not exhaustive.

You must know this though, surely OP?

Immigration in the UK means anyone from any other country outside the UK moving into the UK. Pretty much the same as Brits do when they move to Spain/Portugal/Australia etc but they call themselves 'ex pats' instead.

People equate immigrants with asylum seekers that come over the channel on rubber dinghies, and get housed in posh hotels with full board provided for them - apparently.

They extend their frankly thick (because the vast majority of immigrants are here legally on visas, with little to no recourse to public funding) and racist views to all immigrants.

Edited to add: The Gov rather than tackle the difficult problem of the boats, chooses to focus on reducing post-study visas for students, and making it more difficult to get work visas - because those things are much easier to deal with. Good luck if you need a well staffed care home for your loved one.