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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not care about immigration?

485 replies

StuckinTheMiddlewithYou · 15/05/2011 10:17

So many people seem to have a huge problem with it and I really don't understand why.

The crazy thing is, I live in a hugely multicultural area and most of the people I know who have a problem with this, live in predominantly white suburbs.

We have a problem here with alcoholic homeless people fighting and screaming in the streets - none of them are immigrants.

OP posts:
RobF · 15/05/2011 10:27

YONBU but a lot of people have justifible concerns about it. Just because it doesn't affect you doesn't mean that it doesn't effect other people. There is a lot of unemployment, lack of housing and overwhelming pressure on public services, and most of that is down to immigration. Even Labour politicians have admitted they made a mistake.

moogster1a · 15/05/2011 10:29

Yes. YABU. Uncontrolled immigration has caused huge problems which are only now being admitted to by politicians.

Hammy02 · 15/05/2011 10:31

YABU. We have finite space, money & resources. If your career was endangered due to streams of people coming into the country providing the same service at half the price, I have a feeling you would care about immigration.

melikalikimaka · 15/05/2011 10:33

I have a problem if they are criminal gangsters causing trouble here.

Original poster
StuckinTheMiddlewithYou · 15/05/2011 10:33

I see these issues being reported in the press, yet I have not seen even the smallest amount of evidence for any of these problems in real life. Nothing at all.

Does anybody have any personal experience of the problems of immigration?

OP posts:
Itsjustafleshwound · 15/05/2011 10:33

It is not immigration per se - I am an immigrant and I would like to believe that I actually add to my community !! - but for me the issue is the illegal, uncontrolled side of it.

If you do it the 'right' way - it is a costly, hard business and you are automatically given possibly the hardest ride ...

Wilfimina · 15/05/2011 10:45

No yanbu. It really winds me up when people complain about immigration. We are incredibly lucky in this country just by being born here that I truly cant begrudge anyone who is trying to make themselves a better life. If this country had a dictatorship in where women had their breasts cut off so they couldnt feed their babies, where people had their hands cut off so they couldnt work or where you got locked up for merely having an opinion, Then wouldnt you try and make a better life for you and your family?

You assume that all immigrants arent paying any tax and are just scrounging off the state. It is actually very difficult to move here and do that (I just had a friend with an Irish passport who had to sign all sorts of stuff to say he wouldnt claim any benefit for a certain amount of time. I didnt pry too deeply as it was mostly his business). A lot of immigrants move here and work in essential jobs.

Also brits move abroad all the time. I know of two young men (early 20s) who are now working in Singapore. I have a couple of friends who have moved to France and I have relatives in South Africa and Canada.

We may live on a small Island but truly there isnt really anyone here who is 100% British as we have been invaded and mixed with so many times over thousands of years.

TidyDancer · 15/05/2011 10:47

I think it's quite naive to assume or even believe that immigration in its entirety will not cause problems. Good and bad to everything.

melikalikimaka · 15/05/2011 10:48

But why don't they settle in France, it's a bigger country, lost of space and less population than us.

Hammy02 · 15/05/2011 10:49

It is incredibly naive not to worry about the speed with which our population is increasing.

RobF · 15/05/2011 10:50

"We are incredibly lucky in this country just by being born here"

Luck has nothing to do with it. This country became great because people worked and fought to make it great.

squeakytoy · 15/05/2011 10:50

You may not care about it Op, but it is a huge problem to the economic and social welfare of this country at the moment, and that problem is going to worsen.

Abr1de · 15/05/2011 10:52

I'm an immigrant's daughter. She came over when the population was about 50 million. My brother immigrated to another country. I have no reason to bad-mouth immigrants.

BUT:

Where I live fields are being dug up to build houses as the overcrowded SE ripples out. We are already short of water as so much goes to London. Food prices nationally are going to go up more as we need to import 40% from abroad. There is a limit to the number of people this island can sustain and I think we've reached that: whether the people are black, white, indigenous or immigrants.

Unless Scotland becomes more attractive to migrants. Their population is stable or falling and would benefit from new arrivals.

I don't want more of our beautiful countryside turned to concrete. It's our children's heritage and we ought to pass it on to them.

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 15/05/2011 10:55

We live in a global society. The issues of finite space, money & resources don't go away once you close the doors at Dover. We live in a global society where we expect goods and services to be dirt cheap and at the lowest entry level. And most Britons as individuals expect to go where we like and work where we like. So on the matter of immigration per se, YANBU. I think people should be able to live where they choose - as long as it is regulated.

From a humanitarian point of view I think our doors should be open as well to asylum seekers.

BUT I care about the exploitation of immigrants for cheap, unregulated labour and I care about integration - not ghettoisation.

Wilfimina · 15/05/2011 10:55

Yeah all proper british people working to make it great Rob. Like vikings, romans, britons, celts. Oh wait no none of those are actually from this country either.

RobF · 15/05/2011 10:57

It's funny how those that spout lefty crap like "we are all immigrants" would go mad if anyone suggested the same thing about their exotic pet causes like the Palestinians.

melikalikimaka · 15/05/2011 11:00

Because they soon get a 'short-shift' to Calais, that's why!

Wilfimina · 15/05/2011 11:02

I dont have a "pet" cause I just dont like bigots. Its a bit petty to assume what I would support and believe in because you cant argue logically against a point.

At the end of the day whats important is that people who move here pay their taxes and contribute to society. I also think this is the same for people who already live here.

RobF · 15/05/2011 11:03

"At the end of the day whats important is that people who move here pay their taxes and contribute to society. I also think this is the same for people who already live here."

What about those that don't?

And do you think we have limitless resources to accomodate as many people that want to move here? If 70 million isn't enough people, how many is?

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 15/05/2011 11:05

So [heathersmall] what have you done today to make Britain great RobF?[/heathersmall]

melikalikimaka · 15/05/2011 11:06

My Sil and Bil have just spent the best part of two and half years to get a visa for Australia, why is it so easy to get in here.

Hammy02 · 15/05/2011 11:07

Exactly RobF. People often don't look beyond the end of the week. Something will eventually have to give. Be it immigration curbs or incentives to have fewer children?

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 15/05/2011 11:07

Is it easy? My US work colleague (post-grad, MBA, senior job in international company) has just spent 6 years trying to get residency in the UK. Why do you think it's easy?

worraliberty · 15/05/2011 11:09

We have a problem here with alcoholic homeless people fighting and screaming in the streets - none of them are immigrants

How can you reasonably know that? Do you know them personally?

It must be an area thing. Off the top of my head, I'd say around 40 or 50% of those who act like that here are Eastern European.

AlpinePony · 15/05/2011 11:09

How old are your children? Is their education second-rate because of over-crowding or language issues because the teacher has little time? I'm sure it becomes a very real issue when it affects you and yours.