Does anyone have any actual personal experience of immigration being a problem?

I was very pleased when I urgently needed a dentist two months ago and could register and get an appointment that day because they had just employed an Italian dentist! Without her I guess I would have had to have waited longer.

No

IME there are chancers in ALL walks of life no matter what race/creed/nationality they are

A minority of people will always be on the make

If this is indeed what the 'public' mean by "immigration issues"

IME of living and working in areas with high levels of immigration and asylum, the majority work very hard for a shite wage

And have met many with truly horrific pasts and experiences, hence their need to flee their country of origin

my uncle ran from the russians - his mother and father didn't get away and were twice told he was dead. He was sent to an american camp in germany and came to the uk. He arrived in the uk without a penny to his name, no parents, no siblings and only the cloths on his back. he learnt to speak english and my grandfather taught him to read a little english

he worked 7 days a week 12 hours a day and learnt a trade/skill.

He never saw his mother and father again, they died before the wall came down.

He payed over hundred thousand pounds into the tax system, he had 4 children who also now all work and all have children that work.

And the tripe that come out about immigrants is a load of rubbish from the press.

it rally is someone to blame for all are woes , so lets pick on a small minority, it is the same with single mothers- pick on the vulnrable.

They don't really pick that much on the bankers

I agree that doctors should be made to pass the MRCP but I also think (and no doubt some will be angry about it) that they should be made to pass some kind of spoken English exam too.

When I worked in NHS hospital labs a few years ago (over 10) we had a few immigrant doctors whose English was so bad that they misunderstood important lab results - these could have had potentially fatal outcomes if the nurses on the wards hadn't doublechecked. One of them that stands out was a Far Eastern paediatrician working on SCBU - she was a shocker.

My Grandad's car was hit by an immigrant who had no tax, no insurance and no licence - and consequently disappeared from his supposed address. Not good for Grandad.

Apart from that, I had no real problem with immigrants in the UK town I used to live in - was quite surprised that we had a POlish supermarket open up, and a Polish food aisle in our local Tesco - we had a LOT of Poles in our area, several of them living in rented accommodation just up the road from me. Mostly fine - occasional loud late night parties but no worse than anyone else.

tootsieroll good point.

I do lots of home visits in my line of work with the NHS. More often than not, I enter a household where the parent is chain smoking (how much do cigarettes cost these days?) and complaining about the lack of support from the government in terms of benefits, housing upgrade, education support for the children. What annoys me is that these are the same people who also have on display, branded plasma TVs, branded laptops, latest mobile phone and an abundance of toys which I could never afford for my own children. This is true for both immigrants and citizens. There will always be those who give a bad name to their own kind. I hear hard working immigrants talking about lazy British people who only know how to get drunk, and locals who complain about immigrants taking their jobs and going on benefits.

The argument cuts both ways. The bottom line is, cuts are coming, and if you won't get off your backside to work, someone else will most happily have your job, so don't complain about it.

I think I've only ever benefitted from immigrants in the UK. Not just practically, but culturally/socially as well.

Alouiseg: I'm from Clacton and think that it's not just Colchester, Clacton's much worse for it imo! Colchester has the military base though as well, that makes it somewhat difficult on nights out there due to the squaddies getting slaughtered and the local boys trying to fight them

We used to have loads of Iranian dentists for some reason, that was fun as, me and my sisters being half-Iranian, they used to try speak to us in Farsi whilst we had had their fingers in their mouths, never had the heart to tell them we didn't speak farsi though!

AuntieMaggie: I agree completely! Though there genuinely is a lack of jobs here, the ones that are about tend to be looked down upon by the locals as they're care jobs or working on the nearby farms. It's blooming ridiculous. The attitude of young Brits today scares me, and I am one of them!

Far from "taking my jobs" immigration provides me with extra work.

About 150 years ago, my great grandfather was an immigrant from Eastern Europe too.

I was talking about this earlier with Mum after doing a survey on which party to vote for and working out within seconds which of the policies were the BNPs due to the bad mouthing of immigrants and denial of global warming!

I don't feel that I've lost out as such, though because I'm a seasonal worker really, it is difficult to get jobs as a couple when we're both British as these jobs are usually for people coming here travelling and whatnot.

I do get annoyed about immigrants coming and getting the housing and benefits, but then I get equally annoyed by British people going straight onto benefits too.

I'm married to a second generation immigrant. DH works for a London council arranging translations and interpreting - he has more work to do now, but I don't think that's a particular problem tbh.

I had to wait for ages (8 years) for our housing transfer, but I blame right-to-buy and lack of housing stock for that rather than immigrants and asylum seekers.

I've had more issues with mouthy British expats when visiting ILs in Cyprus than I've particularly seen here.

Actually i do offend, as i am not a size '0' and that is an offence in China!

I work as a m/w and while all the polish/eastern europeans I've met at work have been lovely our unit is very overstretched and at times has had to shut. We sometimes run out of actual rooms on the labour ward, at other times we are looking after more ladies in labour than is ideal. About 1 in 10 women giving birth are recent eastern european immigrants.

I'm sure you could argue its not their fault and that the government should be putting more money into services to cope with the extra demand. Problem is that they're not.

So yes I'm affected, it makes my working life more hectic and stressed.

I think it's the job of the community leaders to assist people settle and not be offensive to the indigenous population, as well as just make their lives easier. When I visit China I am aware of cultural norms and I neither offend or am offended as I have a decent understanding.

on integration, of course it's better if they do but at the same time if I decide to immigrate to another country, I don't expect that country to spend money to 'integrate' me. Not saying I'm against helping them but to what degree do we hold their hand. On another note my neighbour who is quite a traditional muslim (born here but origins from Pakistan) has had immigrants spit at her and tell her to go back to where she came from!! She's also had her headscarf pulled off in the street but from a local.

I have met a fair few maternity nurses who have had to deal with Somalian customs and habits which they found difficult.....why oh why isn't anyone helping these people integrate?

JMTPW, you made me spill me tea .

none here

my neighbours were polish, renting a house that had been left in a right state and they did loads of work on it to make it gorgeous. mind you they did like to play hard, but they also worked hard and were very friendly. we had a lot of polish people round here but they seemed to disappear apparently due to the economy...

my dentist is also an immigrant and she is fantastic - much better than any other I have had and my injections NEVER hurt!

we have several new zealanders and austrailians in work and I love them - not sure if it's a coincidence or where they come from but they are such lovely people.

tbh i'm not sure the "they're taking all our jobs" line is valid - there are loads of people around here who need to get off their backsides and work. no jobs? bollox our local paper is ALWAYS full of jobs and sometimes the same jobs appear for ages. so i'm all for GB's idea to offer them a job and stop their benefits if they don't take it!

i also think that yes the british have lost themselves and their values, but i don't think it's down to immigration - its down to the parents and the families they come from.

i went to school with some muslim kids and they were in all honesty the nicest kids that i came across in school plus they were so dedicated to doing well at whatever they were doing.

My daughter would not be here if it wasn't for a very nice immigrant called Vlad. We owe him so much.

So for me the only problem is I wonder why not all doctors can be as caring as he was

I work in a doctors surgery. Here, non-english speakers, of whom there are increasing numbers, are allocated a 'double time slot'. This is due to the language barrier and the need for translators (costing vast amounts of money as well as the extra time).

this has lessened the slots available for english speakers and has lead/leading to resentment in the community.

Of course, if you have money and private health care this is not an issue.

Yes. I do.

My husband drives me bonkers.

he's an immigrant.

But seriously, no.

"I would like to see all non-UK doctors have to pass MRCP and thus prove their competancy to work here - just like the USA and Canada."

Agree with Highlander on this.

Immigration doesn't affect me much either but i have a bit of an issue with doctors who are rather difficult to understand.

My other issue is in our nearest town, Colchester. Gangs of young men grouping together and being threatening and generally vile to girls who are out in the evening. This causes friction with the "local lads" which as you can imagine leads to fights.

My village is reasonably untouched by immigration and ds' school is predominantly english/white.

Colchester has a long history of Chinese immigrants and they have had a very positive influence on the area. Yes we have some fantastic restaurants but more importantly the 6th forms at the Grammar schools have a very high percentage of Chinese kids. The more bright, hardworking people we have in the area the better.

BARKING AND DAGENHAM This area has seen a huge influx of immigration over the last ten years, just as other areas in and around Britain. 3 bed council houses are now sought by over 600 people. Of cours mass immigration is a problem it effects the lives of those in the lowest end of the economic scale How many MNs live on deprived council estates? It would be fun to find out!
immigration doesn't effect me too much, apart from the trains being overcrowded but then I do live in an area of Britain where the average house price is £500.000!(That's for the smallest house!) I tend to think that I won't see too many immigrants here! Immigration is a problem for many people in Britian today and that's why it's on the political agenda.

DH has a collegue from the Eastern block who cannot seem to practice modern medicine. He now has employment rights after the stooooooooooopid clinical director decided to keep him after his first year.

I would like to see all non-UK doctors have to pass MRCP and thus prove their competancy to work here - just like the USA and Canada.