I really liked my neighbour until she said this

[neighbourhoodwatch]

I've recently moved to a new area and was talking to my neighbour, who I really like.

Somehow the conversation went to GPs and how you can never get appointments and basically have to beg to be seen nowadays.

She was saying how it didn't used for be that way... before...

She then went on to say that it's because of all the immigrants that have come into this country and how our country is too small to hold all these people.

She also talked about the illegals coming in on boats etc and how terrible it is.

I am immigrant. I didn't come on a boat and I have a good job etc. But essentially I came to this country. I've never claimed benefits or anything like that. I'm on a high salary etc and studied here etc etc. So, I'm well established. Essentially whenever people say stuff like that, alarm bells start ringing for me.

Am I seeing it too black and white ? It's just difficult when someone says stuff like this to someone who also came here..... as an immigrant...

She's and old bigot but at least you know now and don't have to endure any further conversation with her.

However, just because you're a high earner with a good job, doesn't make you any more worthy than an immigrant who can barely make ends meet.

Her attitude seems awful and she seems very narrow minded coming out with something like that.

I think I’d struggle not to have said something back to her.

OP I’d just ignore her as much as possible or do whatever you feel is most comfortable. If you see her I’d just wave/give a quick smile but I wouldn’t go out of my way to bother with her. Don’t make time for her if she tries to start a conversation.

if she ever questioned you about why you avoid her then that’s when I’d be brutally honest and tell her you weren’t impressed with her awful comments.

and good on you. I hope you like the UK and settled into your new home.

Yep, she's xenophobic, likely racist and bigoted, and probably voted for Brexit and thinks the Tories actually care about people like her.

I'd steer clear.

I am an immigrant. She is not wrong. What is so horrible about what she said? What is wrong about saying it is not a good idea to allow undocumented immigration? Is it too hard to imagine that a lot of extra people can strain a country's resources. Your objection is that you are an immigrant and you work, did she tell you immigrants don't work?
Where I disagree is that I think if the government is letting so many people in, they need to make sure the country, services, housing etc can accommodate the documented immigrants. The government is partly to blame.

Avoid her op. I challenged one lady in my care of being so racist to non white and white but not British. Since then she has changed her way and has become a good person to everyone involved in her care. She now says thank you so much to you lovely people and I wouldn’t manage without you guys. She was so bad and now she is a new person.

I never get the "what would the UK do without all the immigrant?" nonsense. What they they do before? Most people are not against immigration. I think sensible checks and restrictions are desperately needed.

I basically thought the same as Dotell as I read OP.

Excuse me ? Where do I claim that it does ?

That IS what the bigots think though, but NOT what I think. Unbelievable.

Because That bit of information is exactly why bigoted people feel they can comfortably say this kind of stuff to me.

' oh I don't mean immigrants like you ' ' you can stay because you earn your keep ' ' I mean those horrible ones that have fled the war and are a different colour to us and don't speak the language ' we don't want those ' ' those Ukrainian ones are OK, you know, they're more like us '...... ' we need to help those ones and let them live with us, never mind all the other ones that are fleeing war, we don't want those '... ( this is how some bigots think ).

That is why I included that information, thanks.

I think she has a point, we are over populated and services can not meet needs.

Your quite within your rights not to talk to her ever again, however she's quite within her rights to have an opinion.

She’s a neighbour not a friend and perfectly entitled to her opinion.

and she’s right in some ways- we are massively overpopulated!

Perhaps you dont live in a county that is currently overwhelmed with illegal immigration? I do. Hundreds on boats every week for years.

You do know the legal impact to education don't you? Under 18's or at least those believe to be under 18 (which probably means many under 30) are moved to the top of school waiting lists and funding for support. Mostly young males. What do you believe that means for other young people in the county, REGARDLESS OF THEIR IMMIGRATION STATUS (many new over the last 5-10 years)? The new illegal immigrants are prioritised. How do you think this is funded? I fund some, despite being a single parent, with a child with SEN, through my local council tax. My own child gets no support - the local council cant afford it and complains nationally about the number of applications for EHCPs. The supposed contribution from national govt doesnt cover the cost. So the county tax payers makeup the difference that the rest of the country (England, Wales, Scotland and N Ireland) will not fund. I am tired of paying for illegal immigrants that the rest of the country will not fund.

Now more recently, Ukranians and Afghans who are here on proper immigration programmes I welcome. I know the programmes are not ideal but at least they are a formal acceptance of our duty and care towards others in plight and despair. And my local communities have been brilliant about supporting those in need for the current crises.

To add to this: your offence at your neighbour comment about the country being too small etc. She is right. When I was growing up our population across the 4 nations was referred to as approx 56mill. The last census has our population at nearly 70 mill. Where do you think that 20% increase in population is living? In already over-populated crowded areas. Do you really want to live in a never-ending modern housing estate? Because that is what swathes of the south-east (and I know elsewhere) look like. Every plot of land is up for grabs for housing.

To be totally clear. I have worked for decades with wonderful coworkers who were immigrants or were children of immigrants. I have loved that culture and the wonderful insights it has given me. I am not racist or xenophobic or a bigot or even a cunt in this context. But even my colleagues cant understand why we dont have proper controlled immigration like so many other countries.

It's way too simplistic to blame the immigrants for that though.

Honest to God it seems a lot of people on here would just throw open our borders and let all and sundry come into this island country more densely populated than any other in Europe.
Get real people where do you think all the incomers are going to live? Why is it xenophobic to state the facts, our infrastructure cannot stand it.

So... the reason the NHS is in crisis is immigrants? Not chronic underfunding, poor management and a rapidly ageing population?

It's not OP who needs to get her head out of the sand.

Belgium and the Netherlands say hi....

First, has anyone on this thread suggested open borders, rather than the idea that immigrants may not in fact be the source of all the nation's woes?

Second, where does this idea that infrastructure (particularly human infrastructure like medical system capacity) is fixed come from, and that immigrants are only users of infrastructure, not creators or providers?

But even my colleagues cant understand why we dont have proper controlled immigration like so many other countries.

Im truly curious about this. As an immigrant, the immigration system has felt pretty controlled from the POV of the person going through it. Post-Brexit, what controls do you want that don't currently exist?

These kind of posts appear every day. As soon as I got the gist, I thought how long before or comes out that the neighbour reads the Daily Mail, voted Brexit.

You didnt hold out for long did you OP?

'Services' are more often than not, depending on where you live, supplied at least in part by immigrants. If I didn't use the 'services' of immigrants today I wouldn't have been able to buy petrol, get paid, have security at work, work at all for hours (at least two of my meetings had immigrants in attendance). Oh and I would have gone POOF because I'm one.

But I'm one of those 'we don't mean YOU' immigrants so people feel free to say those things around me. Which is how I know it's racism not xenophobia. Because I'm the colour of milk.

The problem is people saying what they think to anyone. They need to hold back to avoid offending people. I hate certain names for example, but don't say that out loud to random people in case they have a family member with that name, so don't want to offend them.

My registered GP is the daughter of one of a large number of Indian immigrants who qualified as doctors and set up GP practices some decades ago, before the government started restricting immigration from various parts of the former empire again. Some of the current NHS shortages are partly due to non-EU immigration restrictions and government decisions of years ago, as so many GPs hit retirement age without enough new people coming through the system to take over.

It would be a lot harder getting to see a GP, practice nurse or access hospital treatment in north London without them, but also, this is the case across the country. My mum lived for the last part of her life in a much whiter place than the nearby city where I was brought up, but her lovely GP was an immigrant, just one who was seen differently (white south African). And I met one of her former hospital oncologists, who came for dinner with his wife, an Iranian couple.

Sad that your neighbour is such a bigot, but she might find it much harder to see a GP/access other medical treatment without past, present and future immigration and the descendants of those patterns of movement.

Also never heard of xenophobic. I understand anyone would come here legally or risk there lives to illegally save their kids to come here, you can only protest the government. Any racism towards people is pathetic

@neighbourhoodwatch To be crystal clear - I didn’t blame immigrants.