What happens when stopping migration doesn't fix everything?

[Decisionsdecisions1]

What happens when migrants are stopped, returned, sent back and asylum seekers told to look elsewhere etc - what then?

What happens when housing is still unaffordable, when the NHS waiting lists are still too long, when the schools are still struggling, when 1 million young people are still unemployed, when wages still don't keep up with the cost of living and employment is still not secure enough?

Who is blamed then? Labour I would guess.

What will Reform or the Tories do to address those issues when they can no longer blame migrants?

This is a genuine question and no I'm not a journalist. I cannot get my head around how migration and any of those issues are linked sufficiently to make a difference.

If stopping migration would fix those issues I might actually be in favour of it (and I say that as an ethnic minority child of migrants).
But I think the problems are far broader.

If you protested against migrants or support the protesters - What's your view?

For one, this is never going to happen, unless we pull out of the ECHR or drastically change the agreement:

What happens when migrants are stopped, returned, sent back and asylum seekers told to look elsewhere etc - what then?

And secondly, you know that this isn’t what it’s really about…

What happens when housing is still unaffordable, when the NHS waiting lists are still too long, when the schools are still struggling, when 1 million young people are still unemployed, when wages still don't keep up with the cost of living and employment is still not secure enough?

If it is still very difficult to secure a rental property or for someone to get a job without nearly a million people (net) moving here each year we can imagine how much harder it would have been if they still were.

If the population stabilises extra houses built can actually start to address the shortfall rather than the shortfall growing and growing.

The main issues are

we never recovered from 08
wage stagnation
austerity
ageing population

Migration for years had brought in people to help build homes and run the nhs so there is an argument that the situation would be much worse

Firstly, what do you mean "when migrants are stopped, returned, sent back and asylum seekers told to look elsewhere etc". Its "if" surely, the question is hypothetical, unless you know something we don't?

And secondly, this will never happen and you know it, therefore the answer will always be that we still haven't sent "all" the migrants home

They'll find someone else to blame.

Migration for years had brought in people to help build homes and run the nhs so there is an argument that the situation would be much worse

How does the NHS and social care work without migrants?

I think the government are to blame now, the lack of infrastructure and competent handling of tax money are what’s made the average Joe have a shittier standard of living than before.

It's simple. De-industrialise the economy, reduce the school leaving age back down to 14 and send the kids out to work in the fields.

Climate change will mean we won't be able to grow many things, but rice paddies should become viable.

We don't need growth, we don't need imports, and we don't need foreigners.

A new Folk Devil will be found. Not sure who's left.

Add the commodification of housing and Brexit and you have it.

I think there are issues associated with illegal immigrants in communities that would obviously be fixed if they weren’t here. I agree fixing this one issue won’t solve all of society’s ills. If the illegal immigrants were stopped I think people would move on to the next great injustice, our bloated and unsustainable welfare state perhaps.

@MrsTerryPratchett definitely, my brain blurs out the trauma of Brexit! !

The migration "problem" will never be fixed by the UK government.

Those migrants leave their homelands because they are horrible and dangerous places to live in. Would you like to live in Sudan or Afganistan? The problem lies with Sudan and Afghanistan and their awful governments - they are the ones who have to solve the problem - they are the ones that have to make their country nice place to live. It isn't in the power of the UK government to change that so they will keep coming.

Imagine how awful your homeland must be for you to risk crossing the channel in a dingy with a 2 year old.

Having said that - there's no reason why the migrants can't stay in the first European country they come to, it's safe after all.

Do you mean asylum seekers?

or the legal immigrants/ refugees granted visas to come here ?

There are very few illegal immigrants because to be one of those you need to have applied for asylum and been refused the right to remain and then absconded before being returned.

Half the issues in this country could be solved if people had an ounce of understanding of the issues.

But as of who to blame next - disabled people are already being lined up

The country is in an almighty mess and the cost of immigration can only make this worse but by all means live in lalaland if you want

@itsgettingweird , no I do not. They have arrived here illegally and are being housed in our communities prior to any decision on their claim to asylum. They will mostly be granted and that is another issue which could be in line for the fury of many.

They move on to women... Or gay people, or socialists... Well established playbook.

We voted for Brexit because it was going to solve all sorts of problems. We've chosen to forget how easily fooled we were by charlatans, and blotted out the embarrassment of that by moving onto the next idiotic project. And so it will continue! Unfortunately collectively we're a pretty stupid bunch.

Nailed it.

Some other group will be blamed. Pensioners, disabled, unemployed, those with too many kids - whoever. 🙄

Migrants are the current bête noire in the UK. The scapegoats du jour. Deliberate attempts by those in power to deflect attention away from the people and institutions who are genuinely responsible for the mess we are in.

Surely you mean illegal migration not all migration?

What do we do when reducing migration makes things much worse -? like it is now?

They just keep blaming migration, even when it’s less, even if it isn’t happening at all (and there won’t be a point where absolutely nobody is entering the country, at least I bloody well hope not). Once politicians have identified an enemy that resonates with a block of voters they go on pressing that lever even if the connection to reality is minimal.

One of two things happens:

1. They find someone else to blame and people are distracted enough by that. Whatever it is becomes the next scapegoat and the last is forgotten.
2. Shit goes down the pan and they say “no one could have foreseen this” despite a cacophony of learned scholars on the subject being clear this would happen from the start.

(Doesn’t really matter what the thing is, immigrants, covid, cost of living. Just rinse and repeat.)