Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask how people who are anti-immigration feel when they hear about migrant boating disasters?

101 replies

alma123 · 03/10/2013 21:52

Question sums it up really.

OP posts:
hiddenhome · 03/10/2013 21:55

I suppose it depends on how vehement they are. If they are very anti immigration then it probably won't bother them. They will probably blame the immigrants for putting themselves in that much danger Sad

I suppose it's easy to judge others when you're coming from a position of comfort and safety. One half of the world doesn't know how the other half lives.

Original poster
alma123 · 03/10/2013 22:00

It was so sad on the news when they reported that some of the children had new shoes - signs of promise of a new life as they reported it.

OP posts:
hiddenhome · 03/10/2013 22:01
Sad
ModeratelyObvious · 03/10/2013 22:03

I'd think they feel sad about the loss of human life.

ScottishInSwitzerland · 03/10/2013 22:06

Surely you can be anti immigration but still feel sad that people died?

Maybe I'm not understanding the question?

issey6cats · 03/10/2013 22:07

feel sad that these people are so desperate to get away from thier lives in africa that they will pay the earth to go on an unseaworthy boat and risk their lies for the hope of a new life by the way am not anti or for immigration have no real views either way, and very sad that so many people lost thier lives in a not very nice way

FreudiansSlipper · 03/10/2013 22:07

i do not think anti immigration means that you dislike or care for people from other countries though obviously some do but they are vile people who will probably have a hatred for a number of different groups of people

immigration is a problem. some parts of the country are struggling with the influx of immigrants (due often to people paying low wages to immigrants) wanting tight control over immigration does not make you racist or full of hatred

Annunziata · 03/10/2013 22:08

It's not unusual. Most of them just don't get reported here, I think on Monday six men died too.

People on Lampedusa have had enough. When the Middle East crisis was very bad, there were thousands of people landing every week.

PresidentServalan · 03/10/2013 22:09

Or you can be neutral about immigration but not be upset by the boating disasters. I don't feel anything when I hear about this sort of thing, tbh. Whether that's because I have become desensitised to it, I don't know.

Worried3 · 03/10/2013 22:13

Well, I think you can be oppose immigration without being completely heartless or a racist. So I would guess most would feel sorry for those involved in the likes of this disaster.

I don't get the assumption that opposing mass immigration automatically means you hate all migrants and either don't care if something terrible happens or actively wish ill on them. Of course some of those with more extreme view points might be totally unmoved or seek to blame the victims, but I hardly think thats common.

Incidently, I don't have any particularly strong views on immigration. I do believe there have to be some controls in order for it to work for everybody, but I don't have a problem with migration per se.

HollaAtMeBaby · 03/10/2013 22:15

I feel about as sad as I do on hearing of a comparable disaster like a plane or train crash. What is your point? Biscuit

PatPig · 03/10/2013 22:19

Unless you open the country to a potential one billion immigrants, then people will do things like this, because there are far more people that want to come here than we can accommodate, and desperate people will do desperate things

So 'anti-immigration' to some degree or other is essentially compulsory.

Calloh · 03/10/2013 22:25

OP do you mean that people who are anti-immigration should feel in some way responsible for this awful tragedy because if borders were open it may not have happened?

I don't think people who are anti-immigration feel responsible and I don't think they should feel responsible. I expect that most people feel the same sense of horror and futility that life is so unbelievably shit for some people that being an illegal immigrant in a rickety boat seems like the best, most promising option.

Doris80 · 03/10/2013 22:26

So if you think that boat disasters like this are a bad thing, it follows that you must favour open border immigration throughout the world?

zower · 03/10/2013 22:27

you could tell us what you think OP about this. i am imagining you think you have the moral highground Hmm. TBH i think it is a dispicable line of questioning and insinuation, nasty, cheap.

Calloh · 03/10/2013 22:27

No. It follows that I favour trying bloody hard to improve countries so that it's not necessary and to stop the gangs that make a huge profit from other people's desperation.

Doris80 · 03/10/2013 22:29

I wonder if the OP can say what she thinks would be the result of allowing anyone from Africa to move to Europe if they wanted to? It would be absolute chaos IMO. It would probably lead to racial war.

Calloh · 03/10/2013 22:31

How could you have any form of benefit system or NHS if you had entirely open borders unless you operated a two tier citizen-access only and how could that ever work for health?

PresidentServalan · 03/10/2013 22:33

But surely most people would react in the same way to this as they would any other disaster? Some people are upset when they hear about disasters happening, others aren't bothered. I wouldn't imagine that the actual circumstances would make them react any differently iyswim?

LunaticFringe · 03/10/2013 22:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FlankShaftMcWap · 04/10/2013 07:56

If OP has seen similar comments to the ones I have sadly read on FB then I understand why she has asked the question sadly.
I've seen some vile ones, thankfully not people on my friend list but they have appeared on my feed when friends have commented on them. One particularly disgusting fucker said "See! Even nature agrees they should stay where the fuck they come from!" Sad

I don't think it's unreasonable to wonder whether there is a correlation between the reason they were on the boat and people's attitudes to that, and the empathy felt for them. Or lack thereof.

RatherBeOnThePiste · 04/10/2013 08:03

BLimey, that is vile Sad

One would hope they feel saddened by the loss of life, who would feel happy?

I don't know that I understand what the OP wants here, but I think the thread will not end well

CeliaLytton · 04/10/2013 08:06

OP are you in favour of open immigration? Allow unlimite numbers of people to cross borders, no matter the effect on health services, education, housing, not just for the people who already live there but also for those who move to that country for a better life?

Or do you think more should be done to improve countries for people already living there so that immigration is not the only route to a better life?

YABU, nasty, ignorant about the impact of immigration. A lot of the time, people's worries are economic, not racist.

I am not anti immigration as such, but I do have the foresight to see that Britain cannot sustain unlimited growth. Does that make me racist?

I feel the same sadness over loss of life as most others, I expect.

TheFallenNinja · 04/10/2013 08:07

I think the op wants to paint those opposed to unchecked or illegal immigration as some kind if heartless automatons.

Another naive post with no response from the op.

Boring.

SirChenjin · 04/10/2013 08:07

What a nasty little thread.

Swipe left for the next trending thread