Many of those who hate immigrants really do not knoe that much of the wealth of the West, UK specifically was due to explolation of many other countries, just like Liabra said.
My opinion is the media does not help by printing crap that will sell their papers and not a refection of the truth.
Many people hate immigrants because they think they "come er and take all our jobs" or claim benefits. But in reality many Europeans and those from outside Europe come here to work in either professional jobs and were headhunted to come an manage a UK team or start their own businesses and thrive or come and work the low paid jobs the brits will never do, too beneath them, yet many do not have qualifications to do anything more than apple picking.
They also hate the fact they think as a English person they ahve the right to be better off than immigrants, and when immigrants buy houses, send their kids to private school or their child attain better GCSE results ot go to better universities or become lawyers, doctors, scientists as they do they get jealous and start spouting all the crap about immigrants. Yes there are some crooks, but there are plenty crooks out of the nationals.
I am a lawyer, before I went into the corporate law I practised in mixed civil and crime. The media like to portray that if a wife get killed its asians, by only printing those stories headline knews so it looks like asians kill family members, or if a murder took place amongst youth only the black on black crime as they call it is highlighted, but what is it when a white person kills white on white crime etc. Crimilising Jamacians as drug dealing or murders, Nigerians as 419 fraudsters, Pakistanis as sex traffikers, Bulgarians as identity fradusters ( sorry if I have offended anyone who are of these origins), but in reality the ethnic miniorties, the home grown oever the past 60 years or recent immigrants still all togther make up less than than 4% of the population and MOST crime in the UK is commited by UK (white) nationals, due to there being more of them.
Majority of immigrants are hard working people. As a former working class girl who is white British I grew up in an area of London that had many families from Nigeria and India ( hardly any polish Bulgarians or most Eastern Europeans around my way when I was growing up) and they are the most hard working people I know. Clever, ambitious, my mum upped her game when she met many of them.
The thing is many UK nationals think that we should limit immigration, but in my opinion we should look at the home grown kids of today who many are so damn lazy.
The diffeerence with immigrants, lets talk about the ones who come here uneducated, call upon them in 5 years down the line, they would have improved their situaiton, wither thorugh getting a better job or going back to school. They prosper and Their children outperform and outclass white children not just working class, even middle class as standard. That impresses me not make me hate them.
I say to my kids, speak English better, as it is YOUR mother tongue, don't be left behind.
Go into mau UK or internaitonal companies HQ in the UK you will UK people working in admin, security or non qualificaitons jobs, and see where the managers are from, the doctors, nurses, teachers etc, immigrant background.
Finally, I think why do we call people who come here in search of a better life an immigrant anyway. Most Brits who do that are called EXPATS, why are they not immigrants too?
It stinks of ignorance and jealously to me, as those who hate immigrants love retireing in Africa, USA or parts of Europe lourding it over the locals living like kings due to their exchange rate, poping back home to collect their pension and top up on the NHS, do they get treated bad in those countries or welcomed with open arms.
One poster mentioned teachers trying to teach EAL. Ok that might be true, but what about 80% of areas in UK where immigrants hae not reached and the children, native still have no grasp of their own language, ask many kids what is a noun or pronoun and they will not know, as immigrant children and I can bet that they would know or have better crack and come closer to the correct answer.