Immigrants but legal ones?

Ah but racists are perfectly happy for white British men to abuse and rape women.

I'm so sorry you are feeling this way. You sound like a very valuable member of the community and have every right to be here! I think it's good to see the point of view of someone who actually has to live with xenophobia/racism. Too often I think we get offended on others' behalf without experiencing it ourselves although obviously it should be challenged. All I can say is the hospital I work at would probably have to close if all the amazing staff who have moved here from abroad suddenly "went home". They are what keeps the hospital going and are very valued.

After 18 years here and children born here, this is the OP’s home too and most definitely her children’s home country so exactly how is that reconciled?

Surely people who deliberately choose a country to move to, contribute over many years, are in some ways more worthy of calling it their home then those just accidentally born here? It is a deliberate choice to come and contribute and adapt to our customs and culture, I suggest we respect and value that and I believe most of us do.

Take a church analogy. We have people who come to our church all the time and they are most welcome, whatever their prior faith was or was not. In fact those converting deliberately are often respected even more. Nobody tells them oh but your parents were not born Catholics so now you cannot be one of us. It is ridiculous. We should be flattered if people choose to come and contribute to our society and country!
I reckon there are as many people who feel just like me as there are those who do not and it is important to highlight that.

Are there countries that British people can move to without already having a job in place or having the means to support themselves?

Why don’t we discuss how little many British people contribute?

yup - me. Been here 20 something years. Grandfather fought for the British in the war. I was born in Asia. Two weeks ago someone wrote on my windowsill - send them home. My children’ were so confused - they thought they were telling us to go back to London.

It doesn’t help when it feels that British (well English) are hated. Your post suggests you despise British people, how is that ok? I’m sorry about all the racist, any-immigration activity going on now, and I’m sorry that people legally here feel unsafe. I think the majority of the aggressors don’t have more than one brain cell to rub together. They don’t represent the views of the majority but they’re very visible and loud.

I feel for you OP. My mum is an immigrant too, has been in the Britain far longer than she lived in her home country, but that won't matter to the immigrants out lot. I'm an immigrant too, to my mum's country, which definitely has a big problem with racism but even then it doesn't feel like anywhere near the level I'm hearing about in the UK now.

Oh, they are. But just as the Tories didn't stop legal skilled immigration while shouting from the rooftops, neither will the German hard right or Farage, I believe.

There will be curbs on asylum seekers, but young skilled taxpaying immigrants are needed more than ever, because there aren't enough workers across most of Europe. Farage has already indicated as much.

It's going to be interesting when even Reform can't deliver on its promises. A new scapegoat will have to be found. I predict it will be anyone on benefits or a pension.

Legal migration has helped this Country thrive for many, many years. Unfortunately illegal migration is seriously damaging the country & is causing lots of hatred.
Some people are just too stupid to see the difference between the two and they are an embarrassment to the rest of us.
I do feel our government are to blame through for the increasing frustration and unrest at the moment.

I am sorry to hear you are struggling though, things will calm down.

I disagree with this. Don't let them win.
I don't think it will be easy for OPs kids to be uprooted either.

Honestly if I were you OP I would go home. Get British passports for all your family to keep options to return open first then pack up and go. You are very lucky to have the freedom to leave and Eastern Europe is booming. I think you and your children can have a much better life and standard of living there, assuming you're not working in the city and making mega bucks that is. And even if you are making loads of money here you and your kids still have to listen to racist shite.

First post nails it. We don’t all think like that. In fact I think probably most people don’t. Please don’t feel undeserving of being here.

And at one time members of the Commonwealth could move to all kinds of other countries like England of Scotland, a right stripped to create closer ties with Europe.

Right to go to other countries are limited by what they want to allow.

One of the most unfortunate effects that poorly managed immigration and bad immigration policies has is that it makes people feel negative towards immigration in general. Even if people don't hold that against individual immigrants, the frustration with the situation will tend to come through in their interactions.

This is even more the case where you have bad policy materially affecting certain people, for example by suppressing wages, and also a government, and media in many cases, and many members of the pmc, who deny these effects, and deride those who experience them. All while being insulated from the problems themselves, or even benefiting from the situation.

The people who have caused this kind of resentment to grow with their bad policies have a lot to answer for.

Yeah and German politics and society aren't veering to the right at all, are they?

Another link. The EU commissioner acknowledges that Europe is in a global race for skilled migrants with the UK, US, Australia and Canada, but has the special issue of an ageing population. EU competes with US and Australia in the global race for skilled migrants.

So many posts on here think "migrant" means a person on a small boat. That's a tiny portion of migration. The real issue seems to me that we don't have enough taxpayers, and it's getting worse.

Germany, with a similar ageing population, is recruiting 90,000 Indian workers this year. Skilled ones to be sure. So it's not true that all developed countries are slashing immigration, or even that they are only allowing people from their own cultures. https://asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/immigration/germany-aims-to-draw-90-000-skilled-indians-annually-to-fill-jobs I expect this to happen in other countries too, when they run out of workers.

Some of the posts on this thread are seriously outdated.

Problem is, almost every single developed nation needs immigrants, and many may be far more attractive places to live (to many immigrants) than the UK is.

What makes you think "the best people" all want to come to the UK?

The birth rate meaningfully recovered under Blair/Brown, then collapsed following the 2010 financial crisis and has never recovered, which is probably why the Conservatives allowed immigration to go through-the-roof.

And, tbh, I think most anti-immigration anxiety today is associated with Islamaphobia, and little to do with Blair at all.

Does the country have the resources to offer that chance to unlimited amounts of people?
This last sentence perfectly highlights what anti-immigration folk don't get.

With the exception of asylum seekers (who are a tiny percentage of overall immigration) we accept large numbers of immigrants because they are a resource, and we need them.

That shouldn't have to be the case but, with our birth rate having been lower than the replacement rate for over 50 years now, if we want to keep things like a state pension or the NHS, we need sufficient working age people.

Immigration is categorically not the long term answer but it would make a tonne of sense to try and find a longer term solution before we take off the temporary sticking plaster one (which is why Reform, if elected, likely will be the next in a long line of parties that talk tough on cutting net immigration, then don't do anything about it once they get into power).

No country has managed to solve the fertility crisis but I don't think many have been radical enough. At this point, I don't think its enough to make having 2+ kids simply "less unaffordable" but people should be financially incentivized to have kids.

Until we figure that our, we should be grateful for every immigrant that comes here to work, because they'll help us keep the lights on for a little longer.

Read the post before you comment. Do you think racists are rational?

Lol, apologies! 😂

Well if you came 16 years ago you must by absolute no fault of your own came on the Blair wave ? Ie they the then government predicted 13 thousand eastern europeans would come here.

I think 13 Thousand came to one London borough in a very short space of time
Again 95 plumbers were predicted to come ,there were 95 registered in London alone.

Unfortunately the country was not prepared in any way shape or form and infamously in Slough on a panorama investigation program meals on wheels had to be pulled from the elderly to go to translators in primary schools. Schools ,hospitals were all totally overwhelmed and many children came alone ,sent alone etc.

It was a crime against the British people ,benefits were going to children in Poland who had never set foot here !

Then Blair and brown gas lit us all saying it was good for us ?

That was the foundation of Brexit. My bill is polish but here 25 years ago and said to me, your governent is crazy why wouldn't they want to come you've got such high numbers it magnifies the less desirable people and we didn't know who was coming here then and it was reported many criminals did come.

I agree , it's a no brainer wouldnt we all do it.
I don't blame anyone for coming here then it was not on them that Blair cocked up numbers !!

It was blairs job to protect us and he failed.

Before that immigration was never the burning issue it's become now but the trust in government has gone.

Things seemed to have levelled out from blairs catasrphohe ,those years the birth rate shot up and in subsequent years classes had bulge ,playgrounds lost to class rooms and now the birth rate is falling again.
Like yourself op your established here now ,in a community assimilated but still polish.

However I do believe if blairs blunder had never been made we would have had a steadier trickle of immigrants easier to absorb and less immigration ansgt today.

I haven’t called you a racist so I don’t know what you’re talking about.

In an earlier comment to a different user you implied that if someone moves here for a better standard of living then they’re taking something. That makes no sense.
People retire to nicer, sunnier countries for a better standard of living too, which by your logic means then they’re taking something. However you seem to be okay with one side taking something (funnily enough… the British elderly side).

I don’t know if you’re racist or not, nor do I care, but all your comments do seem to paint you as a bit a narrow.