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

Because the freedom of movement in EU was stopped - that our Gov would allow /encourage / increase other immigrants from elsewhere wasn’t on the cards at the time of the vote.

Why do you think Brexit would have had any impact on immigration?

Immigrant's are just like British people. Some are happy to take take take from the government and get as much as they can for the least amount of effort. Some are incredibly hard working and will put more into the system than they'll take out. Some are hardworking but also need too up benefits and therefore probably take more from the system than they will be able to put in. Just saying they are all amazingly hard working or they are all scroungers is just silly. Immigrants aren't just one homogeneous bunch.

Are you suggesting that 3 and a half million people entered the UK legally, with visas, and then promptly began claiming benefits?

Because they weren’t all Ukrainians (who did have access to public funds) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ukraine-family-scheme-application-data/ukraine-family-scheme-and-ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-homes-for-ukraine-visa-data--2 and most of the other visas I’m aware of require the applicant to demonstrate that they can support themselves in the UK as they have no entitlement to access public funds. So what visas did more than 3 million people come in on that impacted the benefit bill?

I guess from a practical standpoint if there continue to be large numbers of net migration then issues that people care about will get worse. The NHS won't get any better if there are more people chasing fewer resources. Schools will get less money as there will be more kids. it is difficult to build more housing quickly due to a large number of factors. We have no growth in our economy and not enough high tax payers to fund increases in the NHS/education etc.. If it was easy to tax the big corporations (which would be the most preferential option) then the government would have done it. If things don't begin to get better then that gives Reform a good chance of winning the next election.

So what they fly home for all appointments and dont use any of the services in the countries they are living in? Get real.

Well, it's going to be tough. You've seen the reaction on here to the Scandinavian model, which I think is eminently sensible. I suspect those weekly pro Palestinian marches will pale into insignificance if harsher methods are introduced.

I put an answer to this in pp. It takes a lot to vote in a system that reach Aus reduction but it’s looking likely.

Up until now there’s been a lot of backlash even from politicians including ‘dog whistle’, ‘culture wars’ and ‘racist’. Now Labour are cravenly dropping that in an attempt to get votes people will just say yeh this doesn’t look good.

I agree with pp in a few years people will wonder why we thought entry in high numbers using criminal gangs was a good idea.

Lets flip that on its head for a minute (not necessarily what I believe but what Reform might credibly say).
Immigration is a good portion of nurses, social workers, social care workers, probably doctors as well there is a well documented on MN issue with international doctors coming to the UK and taking posts they are overqualified for so that UK trained (at great expense) doctors cannot get posts as they have fewer points. There was a thread the other day from a newly qualified GP who said she couldn't find a job and was having to look at other careers...

people who need to earn a higher wage so we can send remittances to our home countries so not spending money in the local economy which would support local businesses and contribute further to the public purse by consumption taxes like VAT.

Immigration are people with ambition to own our own homes so graft for it, increased demand in the housing market puts up prices and may make homeownership impossible for people born in the area. Its also not the case the people born here don't work hard and graft for the ever diminishing dream of being able to buy their own property.

people who want our children to excel by being educated at schools paid for by the taxpayer - as pp have said upthread there can be problems if children start at school unable to speak English, if there aren't enough places in local schools so children who once would have been in catchment for eg their village school now have to travel miles to the next one. In counties like Kent that have major migration crises and a grammar school system - there are problems if familes tutor their kids like hell to get into the grammar schools and local children who should have made the cut don't.

so that maybe one day they can go and rebuild our home countries. or maybe they will decide to stay here and take jobs from local people. Or conversely that the taxpayer will have paid a fortune to educate them, provided them with free health care etc etc and then the taxpayer won't get a "return" on that investment because they will go elsewhere.

I'm only playing devil's advocate here but you can see how easy it is to take what is quite an unpleasant post and counter it with equally unpleasant rhetoric. Then you wonder why it is such a hot topic.....

It is in the government’s interest to sort it out, it has now got past the stage of kicking the problem into the long grass as successive governments have done. If Labour don’t get a handle on it (and soon) they will lose the next election. Starmer knows this.

There has been a massive increase in immigration over the last few years - tbf,can be laid largely at the door of Boris Johnson. People now worrying that it's not sustainable to have the population of Birmingham arrive each year, and also that such large numbers will mean a lack of integration and rapid changes to society.

My sister lives in Sweden. There has been a rise in antisemitism. I think education on this is essential.

If numbers crossing remain high that won’t alter much. And would cost even more.

Anyone who comes to these shores should be treated with dignity and respect. The same with anyone already living here. There are a myriad of problems with various causes around this whole issue. The immigration stats would indicate that in recent years, the numbers have been equivalent to that of a city the size of Liverpool entering each year. This needs more effective planning and support, even if these are vital workers for our economy.

@Youdontseehow

Our DC will look back in 10, 20 years and wonder how we let this happen

But we aren’t letting it happen -we have brexitted, voted for a string of new PMs over short term, now got Labour in but NONE HAVE SORTED THIS -so now we are moving to reform

No they’re not - I agree. But we wouldn’t need as many migrants if our own people worked more.

It will be for the next. Up until now the rhetoric has been it’s ‘culture wars’ ‘dog whistle’ mostly used by Labour to stop discussion.

I think that’s ending, people will just vote for harsher stuff.

Sadly I don’t think that would work. We’d just end up with millions sleeping rough and stealing to feed themselves. I am massively against uncontrolled migration but we couldn’t just let people starve.

Why are these 2 things mutually exclusive?
I'm not talking about the so called UK "work shy". I'm talking about Scandinavian measures which may make integration of migrants more successful.

Maybe we could start with “insisting” fit people work rather than rely on the state to keep them. We wouldn’t need foreign health care workers if wages and conditions were an incentive to work - I can’t blame some people on benefits for choosing not to work if they end up worse off!

"The cost of housing asylum seekers in the UK is expected you reach a staggering £15bn over 10 years, a significant increase from the original estimate of £4.5 billion. This dramatic rise is attributed to a surge in asylum claims, particularly those related to Channel crossings. The National Audit Office (NAO) has reported that the daily cost of housing these asylum seekers has tripled, reaching £4 million a day."