It’s never going to happen that economic opportunities are spread evenly across nations or globally. There will always be economic hubs that draw people. And yes, I would say that about other countries because that is exactly why I came to the UK. And why my DH’s family came to the UK from a different continent. When my kids are older, they will go wherever they feel offers the best opportunities for their abilities. If that’s China or wherever, so be it. You can’t pretend you can stop human migration. Its always happened and always will.
I can totally understand how, in an area like Boston in Lincolnshire, which had the highest Brexit vote, the wave of EU immigration from Eastern European countries would have been felt as more if a “shock”. Firstly, their population increased by something like 16%, so that would be noticeable in an area of low investment as it was. Also, those areas are more culturally homogenous, so again, immigration is much more noticeable.
I think I read somewhere that pre- 2004, 80% of EU immigrants to the UK (like me)! settled in the Greater London area / SE. After 2004, when the A10 countries acceded membership of the EU and Blair welcomed them in, this marked a different migration flow because this workforce from Eastern European countries came to fill jobs in the agricultural / processing sectors that, frankly, British “locals” wouldn’t do. This is why they went to places like Lincolnshire. It destabilised communities that had never recovered from Thatcher. Also, when people feel left behind and alienated, it’s always easier to point the finger at the “other” eg. Immigrants.
Meanwhile, a more affluent demographic in London who felt they had everything to gain from globalisation, also felt they benefitted from the surge in eg Polish plumbers (you could never get one to show up before this), builders, nannies etc.
So yes, of course I see how the different perspectives have emerged according to different regional, socio-economic experiences.
But I still maintain, that the Brexit vote in some areas wasn’t all down to anger about being left behind, wanting change, etc. Why wait to 2016 to suddenly need to change the entire voting history of generations? There was an underbelly of xenophobia mixed in there too, whether they can admit it to themselves or not. If Cummings had never been let loose with his slogans and Farage had been thrown in the Channel on day one, Brexit or the EU would never have been on anyone’s radar. The red wall would never have had its wondrous epiphany to turn blue in order to “Take Back Control” or whatever bullocks Cummings told them, and those communities would be Labour today as they always were.