If you are against immigration, what do you think about net contributing immigrants?

[IceLollyMolly]

I don't have the nerve to post in AIBU! I am a recent immigrant- I don't even have my ILR yet- and came in on a skilled worker visa in 2020, as did my DH. Both of us are high earners and pay a lot of tax. Both of us fill positions that were first advertised to British people, but could not be filled.

Lately, of course, there has been a lot of press about high immigration and how it should be curbed. There seems to be a simmering resentment against all immigrants, spearheaded ironically by Tory immigrants.

So far, I have not taken anything from the state and am unlikely to. I have private health care, and am pretty healthy anyway, so rarely use it. I have not given birth here or used state schools. If I ever had to go on benefits, I would likely return to my home country where I had a good standard of life, just not the international workplace I have here.

I am aware that the country needs both high earners and low earners- I am not saying I am more important than a care worker- but I sometimes get tired of the narrative that all immigrants are low paid unskilled workers taking jobs from British people, and a drain on the system. I am by no means the only one in this position. I work for a company that recruits globally. But many are now going to the US or Canada as they think they will be more welcome there.

I think that by paying high taxes, my colleagues and I are giving back more than we take. We are of course not eligible for benefits until we get our ILRs. Am I wrong? I also think the British economy should encourage high earning immigrants and global talent by making immigration easier and cheaper. My ILR next year will cost £2885 per person and may take 6 months! I think that is rather unfair. Prepared to be told I am being unreasonable even though this is not in AIBU.😊

The UK will never be the first safe country they reach.

Do you think therefore that the UK should not take anyone fleeing war/terrorism, etc?

Not enough room or goodwill indefinitely for those fleeing terror or saying they are, who choose this country to flee to. The answer to your question is that they stay put, like they always did in the past or go to a neighbouring country if they will have them. It’s not the answer you want though. No legal route is like saying, I want to stay at your house, you have not invited me, don’t know me and don’t want me, but I will still turn up.

For OP If you are a net gain to the country, law abiding and you are legal and invited, most ppl will not have a problem. If it is about skin colour, well those ppl are prejudiced and nothing would appease them.

The problem with this though, is that means all the safe countries neighbouring the unsafe ones will be overloaded with people very quickly. What if you lived in one of those bordering safe countries? Would you not get annoyed other countries weren't helping?

Also saying they must stop in the first country they get to is such a handy cop out for us, as we're an island surrounded by safe countries!

Also, let me pose a theoretical question. Let's say you had a child who needed to flee the country they lived in. They should technically go to the first country they get to. But, they tell you that they have friends in Germany who would take them in and look after them. Help find them a job. Would you genuinely tell your child - No! You mustn't go there as it's against the rules! You have to go to the first country you get to, even if you know no one, and don't speak the language.

Of course you wouldn't. It's ludicrous.

Correct, why is it so difficult to understand? No they should not be allowed to flee to the UK. I don’t blame them for trying. I would also say that most are economic migrants. That’s not to say they are not looking for a better life. They obviously are.

Tories spotted out rounding up asylum seekers today. Shame on all those who agree with this.

Friends in safe countries are the link of course. They may help them, but do they fully support them and act as guarantors for their behaviour or future contributions? You are not permitted to join a gym or stay in someone’s house or a 5 star hotel just because you know someone who stays there, that’s not the criteria for anything in life.

Most people are typically welcoming of those arriving with skills that are needed and get involved and become part of the local communities. I have around 20-30 friends from all over the world and it is not important to me at all that they were not born here.

However, we are a small island with limited housing, space and resources. We have many families living in abject poverty regardless of the government of the day, no party has been able to eradicate homelessness for example. We definitely need much more control over immigration, borders and most pressing people smugglers. The gangs are a real issue.

We are a very tolerant nation and wish to be open and welcoming but we also need boundaries and a strong government that can protect and support our values. Things like the nhs, social care will simply cease to exist unless we can find a way to control immigration.

You are very welcome op, and I hope you enjoy your life here.

Managed migration of highly qualified, highly skilled workers ≠ uncontrolled mass immigration of unskilled people from developing countries.

Also it’s pretty shitty for Britain to refuse to help anyone because we are lucky enough not to have a war on our doorstep.

I suspect I share very few values with you. Which of us should leave?

Exactly! I wonder how the people who think that everyone should stay at the first safe destination would feel if they lived in Lebanon or Turkey. Pretty differently I suspect.

If your values are markedly different from mine: regarding democracy, a secular state, women's rights and other protected characteristics, then I'm less happy. But so long as you don't try to force those values on other people, and you also respect the rights of your children who are now a part of UK society, then I'll accept it as I accept other opinions I disagree with in our society.
Voice of reason.

And Lebanon and Turkey take the overwhelming majority of refugees from the region. The way these people talk everyone is coming to Britain. We take fewer than almost anyone (in absolute terms and per capita)

Talking about fleeing terror, I heard an interview on radio 4 with the father of the young girl who died horribly on an overcrowded illegal boat crossing at the weekend. He had applied for asylum in several European countries and been denied 14 times. Clearly his claims to have been fleeing terror didn’t land. He had been illegally living in Belgium and Sweden for years. Had married and had 4 children without having any right to live in those countries and now had ‘no choice’ but to attempt to travel to the UK illegally via people traffickers to avoid deportation with his family. Was he desperate or determined? Why did he think he’d succeed here? Why was he on the bloody BBC being interviewed in sympathetic tones instead of banged up for causing the death of a child by his criminal behaviour?

On values it can invite dismissal but I noticed on recent application to another country there was a values statement which you have to accept to get a passport / citizenship

I’m not against immigration but am against high immigration that isn’t managed properly where people come here from a safe country seeking asylum, when they could have tried at another country on the way here, although at the same time I understand people wanting to flee from terror, persecution, and wanting a better life for them and their family.

Ultimately I feel privileged to live in a safe country and don’t blame people for wanting to come here.

I think most people that are massively against immigration are thinking of the undocumented people that get housed in HMOs etc and not people that move here for work and are high earners which of course is another type of discrimination.

OK, it actually surprises me that someone will admit that they don't want to help anyone fleeing from war.
It is actually difficult for me to understand that point of view.

Exactly. It's a bit rich for the UK to engage in military interventions around the world and then tell other countries they have to take in all the refugees that result from it.

You have to do the same to get British citizenship

You also have to pass a lengthy test about British history and values that apparently many British people would fail themselves

There are wars all over the world at any given time. There are economic migrants that are never ending. Should have been firmer years ago, being soft created a pull.

Do you realise that other countries are also looking at Rwanda to send asylum seekers?
It's not just the nasty old British.
Many European countries also don't want hordes of undocumented young men either

By all over the world I assume you mean the Middle East, Russia and parts of Africa.

If I ever had to go on benefits

How is it you do not know that it is illegal for you to “go on benefits” per your “skilled worker visa” as you don’t have ILR?

The Home Office make this very clear.

Really? So the people who would call me a P*ki bastard and tell me to go home when I lived in the UK didn’t have a problem with people who don’t arrive as asylum seekers?

Claim asylum in the first safe country they get to?

Us being an island, is not the first safe country they can reach.