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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:
BulletWithAName · 16/05/2011 09:51

That's the thing, the police know about it but nothing seems to happen- It's still going on.They had £1000 off my grandad!

Takeresponsibility · 16/05/2011 10:59

Woah - stop right there. "Eastern Europeans" - that is hugely racist and stereotypical and I can't believe that no-one has challenged this yet.

There is a huge difference between a hard working Eastern European who works long hours doing menial work and sending money home and one who comes here with a big gang of kids claiming benefits and having a police record as long as your arm for various motoring, shoplifting and other "minor offences - just the same as there is for Western Europeans, Americans, people with moustaches or any other grouping you can think of.

Plus I would like to point out Kossovo is not in Eastern Europe.

cookcleanerchaufferetc · 16/05/2011 11:01

Kosovo is in Eastern Europe ....

(trying to be refrained from commenting on this thread.....!!!)

cookcleanerchaufferetc · 16/05/2011 11:02

restrain ... not be refrained!!!

Thistledew · 16/05/2011 11:06

Why is it that people are so insistent that crime and immigration are the same thing? Just because you have been a victim of crime in the UK at the hands of someone who was not born in the UK does not mean there is an intrinsic connection between crime and immigration.

Such ignorance is an insult to the majority of immigrants who are hard working and law abiding.

cookcleanerchaufferetc · 16/05/2011 11:08

Crime and immigration are linked .... more people, more crime.

This takes all forms ... crimes by immigrants and crimes against immigrants but at the end of the day, more people, more crime.

aliceliddell · 16/05/2011 11:11

Haven't read all this (blood pressure fears). Unemployment & lack of affordable housing are not caused by immigration. Housing - sold council houses right to buy, didn't build replacements. Banks give (too) cheap mortgages to buy to let vultures landlords. Unemployment - low minimum wage makes jobs unviable for 'natives'.

Thistledew · 16/05/2011 11:15

I think that is rather simplistic. That is a completely meaningless statement, like saying there is more crime in America than in the UK. Of course there is, but it does not mean that you are at any greater risk of being a victim of crime.

cookcleanerchaufferetc · 16/05/2011 11:17

It may be simplistic thistle but it is true ....

Takeresponsibility · 16/05/2011 11:17

Kosovo is in the Balkans. Kosovans claimed asylum here during the 1990s because of the war with Serbia. Kosovo is now recognised as an independent state by the majority of the world - why are these young men still here?

fairydoll · 16/05/2011 11:18

'There is a huge difference between a hard working Eastern European who works long hours doing menial work and sending money home and one who comes here with a big gang of kids claiming benefits and having a police record'
they both represent leakages to the economy

Thistledew · 16/05/2011 11:22

Yes, it is true that you are not at any greater risk of crime simply because you are in a larger population. I don't see the point you are trying to make.

alizee · 16/05/2011 11:25

Takeresponsibility

to be honest, that's what makes my life more difficult in the UK, I have always been honest about my origins although people get funny ideas due to my accent. i always get the "really?! no way! are you serious? but you're not.. you don't .." when i say i'm eastern european.

aliceliddell · 16/05/2011 11:26

Oh, forgot 'drain on public services' - anyone used the NHS lately? Our 6 GPs group practice - 5 Asian GPs. Consultants - mine = Chinese. Dd's - Middle Eastern, african. Physio - mine - irish, British. Dd's - Australian. Social services - irish, new zealand. This drain, then. Where?

aliceliddell · 16/05/2011 11:28

Alizee - you should do it back ' that's funny, you don't look racist'

paisleyII · 16/05/2011 11:46

as usual, the liberal left immediately jump on my comment about the cash point experience and immediately label it racist. it was not an opinion, it was an experience including what the poiceman told me at the station. shit happens and like it or not, not all of it is nice. i didn't say all eastern euro's were corrupt, nothing of the sort i was simply stating an experience that i have witnessed in answer to op's original thread as to a downside to the utopia she experiences. and as a continuation to alice - i recently met/have become friends with a lady who is a midwife at our local notorious nhs hospital. the stuff she has told me although i already knew from experience would make your toes curl. they cannot cope due to immigration levels down there and before you spout off about her being racist too, she is from korea

ccpccp · 16/05/2011 11:58

"This drain, then. Where?"

The reason why you are being treated by the world is because they had to be rushed in to cover the strain on services brought about by immigration. So more immigration.

Millions of economic migrants have entered this country legally and illegally in the last 14 years, while our own workers have been shifted onto the dole as many jobs no longer pay a living wage.

Seems a lot of 'brits' think this is fair reward for our colonial past. I look forward to the day they are lamenting on here that their grandkids cant find work.

Thistledew · 16/05/2011 12:01

Paisley - you have been the only person to say that what you said was racist, but fine if you want to acknowlege it as such. I, and others, simply pointed out that you derailed the conversation from talking about your experiences of immigration to talking about your experiences of crime. And that in doing so you were making an unfair generalisation.

As to the comments about immigrants putting strain on the NHS, that is to ignore the many more arguments about how tax revenue is raised and applied in the UK.

I am sure you realise as well that just because someone is not of British origin, does not mean that they are not capable of being racist.

AlpinePony · 16/05/2011 12:16

I'm not sure Paisley's reports of crime are inherently "racist" at all. It is common knowledge that people arriving from particular countries would no more consider buying car insurance/road tax/MOT than they would dress up as Kermit the Frog and do the can-can on Tower Bridge. Confused Yes, of course many Brits are driving around uninsured - but the problem is I'm sure proportionately greater in the immigrant population.

An immigrant wanted to sell his car to me, it was a nice car and all, but when I asked what the road tax was he had no idea what I was talking about and claimed he'd never "had" to pay it. I did not buy the car because christ alone knows how he'd been driving it for 18 months without having to pay the tax and I didn't want to suddenly become liable (not UK).

alice Public resources are more than NHS. Next time you bitterly de-cry the raising of your council tax yet e.g., "surestart" is binned - stop for a moment to think about e.g., rubbish collections/translation services.

MisterDarsey · 16/05/2011 12:18

paisleyII

they cannot cope due to immigration levels down there and before you spout off about her being racist too, she is from korea

So she's an immigrant herself - one of the many keeping the NHS going in order to look after our ageing (native) population.

You see the problem? Anyone can come up with anecdotes about services struggling to cope with immigrants, but equally anyone can talk about cases of immigrants who actually provide the services in the first place.

What matters is the overall effect on the economy, so how about looking at some real evidence?

OliPolly · 16/05/2011 12:20

ccpccp

have you ever visited a former colony?

alizee · 16/05/2011 12:22

Alpine Pony "It is common knowledge that people arriving from particular countries would no more consider buying car insurance/road tax/MOT than they would dress up as Kermit the Frog and do the can-can on Tower Bridge."

Sorry but that's a ridiculous statement.

ccpccp · 16/05/2011 12:23

If someone gets mugged by an immigrant, they wouldnt have been mugged had that immigrant not been here.

So immigration is the problem in this case, yes?

Tax revenue? Now you are digging for excuses. More people for the same services = strain. And to be honest, the whole 'immigration is good for the economy' line is blown out of the water when you consider that the tax revenue received often just pays for a brit to be on the dole.

It makes more sense for the brit to get the job and the immigrant stay at home making their own country better. Cant have that though. Its racist!

Thistledew · 16/05/2011 12:24

Really AP? Do you actually mean that everyone from 'certain' countries will, without exception, fail to tax their car? If not, and what you actually meant was that some, and most likely a minority of people from 'certain countries' behave in that way, then why did you not say so?

AlpinePony · 16/05/2011 12:36

Er.... did I say that? Hmm No, I did not say "all". Have you ever travelled or mixed and integrated with other cultures?