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.😊

Sorry what do wars have to do with economic migrants? The two are not linked.

Referring to your first paragraph. The whole of Europe and so many other places in the world, have thousand upon thousands of British and American migrants

who do not integrate
do not speak the language even after decades in the country

and more or less live in anglo-saxon ghettos.

The UK has the same to gain citizenship, you also have to sit a completely pointless test that bares no relation to life in the UK, despite being called a life in the UK test.

I used to have a young man in my team, born in the UK, completely westernised in his behaviour regarding drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, no interest whatsoever in religion. His wife was brought over from a village in Pakistan, religious, did not speak English and was struggling to learn it, failed the test multiple times. They had two daughters. What sanctions would apply for not passing the test?

If you can go back a few hundred years and not have invaded so many other countries then you might have a point.
But only might.

Yeah but they're ex-pats, so it's different

Easy to say, when you are the furthest away from points of arrival. So they should all stay in Sicily and other small islands and countries on the Med or the borders with the Far East. Easy peasy ;)

The whole focus on asylum seekers is wrong imo and just a distraction. Hundreds of thousands of people come here legally every year. They all need somewhere to live....we don't have enough homes. The private rental market is nuts and house prices are high. The housing crisis absolutely terrifies me. We own our home but I have no idea how our children will manage.

The problem is housing.

Weve added about 10 million people in the last 20 years but we haven’t added enough houses.

No one wants to build on greenbelt.

The environment is a disaster already with biodiversity going down dramatically.

Housing is now extremely expensive.

NHS hasn’t kept up with the influx either. Roads are congested, trains are expensive. Infrastructure is dire.

The country just feels overpopulated.

It’s not personal. I’m married to an immigrant but where do we house all the new ones arriving.

The government is spending billions on hotels for newly arrived illegals. What is the solution?

Naive virtue signalling.

Do you know how many wars there are going on? How many people there are in the world affected by despotic regimes, disasters and just generally horrific conditions? Billions.

They can't all fit in to the UK, unless we stopped caring about infrastructure, health care or even a standard of living not resembling that of battery hens. Hell, there wouldn't even be enough room in the whole of Europe for everyone affected by war and horrible lives.

The current asylum system is no longer fit for purpose, it was agreed when it was much more difficult for people to travel from their own countries.

Not too long ago we actually had a good balance I feel. It felt peaceful, there was an impression that integration would happen naturally over a few generations. But the legal levels of migration (the boats aren't even that many people compared to that) and the amount of dependants brought along are swamping the system.

The rhetoric about lazy brits is wrong too. Employers are able to keep paying peanuts for vital jobs because they have plenty of cheap labour who don't care about living or working conditions. I'm not surprised sone Brits look around them, shrugs and say 'why bother, what for?'.

Apart from the looming cultural clashes (do we really think an islamic polictical party will espouse liberal british values?), this level of immigration will keep wages ridiculously low, and worsen living and working conditions for millions.

I don't know but I'm curious what sanctions you think should apply.

Would you be happy to deport the mother of two small British girls? Force a British family out of the country because the mother is struggling to learn English?

Actually they do all have the option of picking whatever country they fancy. It is legal for any asylum seeker to go to any country they choose and claim there. What we don't have is SAFE routes.

It can be. Lots of asylum seekers come by plane and present at the U.K. border in Heathrow etc. Less than half come by boat and the channel crossing.

Asylum seekers are only 6% of total immigration, including the Afghan and Ukrainian refugee programs.

Unless they fly here, which more than half do….

She actually says in her opening post that she knows that she would need ILR to be eligible for benefits. We are of course not eligible for benefits until we get our ILRs.

Also, you have taken that quote out of context. If she had to go on benefits she would return to her home country, to me that means if she was in a position where going on benefits was something she had to do she wouldn’t and would return to her home country

You also have to pledge loyalty to the King.

I agree. Many in the U.K. are just plain xenophobic and some of those are also racists. They have a problem with all immigrants.

No of course not. It isn’t true that ‘you have to pass a test’ to come here though, as per the post I was responding to. I am interested in how and why a young man born and bred in the west and apparently embracing of western culture was influenced to marry someone he’d never met and who came from such a massively different and incompatible background though. And the legal mechanism that enables that.

Well, the football questions do 🤣. It’s such a stupid test, it’s like you need to be a football fan in order to be a citizen!,,

I’m not sure we’re particularly dissimilar to other countries

To be honest I see why the British are starting to get pissed.

You're pretty much the only country and indigenous people not allowed to have your own culture or identity.

“Do you know how many wars there are going on? How many people there are in the world affected by despotic regimes, disasters and just generally horrific conditions? Billions. They can't all fit in to the UK,…”

Scaremongering nonsense. We can fit in the average of 50,000/yr of asylum seekers that get here. If any immigrants should be denied, it should be reducing the skilled workers a teeny tiny bit who are economic migrants coming from prosperous, safe countries of which we allow in over 1 million per year.

My friend was born in Japan. Have a guess at the reception she got in one town for telling them she was Japanese?

If you think that British people are the only ones capable of racism or xenophobia I have a bridge to sell you.

ALL humans are tribal. All of human history, everywhere, has horrendous acts committed because of this. Many countries have been colonisers, slavers and warmongers.

Seriously? How to say you have never lived in another country without saying it.

Nothing in my posts suggests that British are the only nationality in the world to have xenophobes and racist. Odd you’d take issue with this fact of life, if as you, say it’s no better anywhere else. My comment would have been completely unremarkable and not have touched a nerve.