Are people that want zero immigration racist?

[equalstime]

People that moan about migrants coming to this county - taking our jobs - taking our houses - draining the medical system - not settling in the first country they reach for asylum- they're racist right?

There will always be an element of migration and when you take account of UK born people that leave and non Uk people that enter our country, the net figure is no doubt reasonable. They are often willing to work and contribute to our society and economy - so why the hostility?

Why not accept as a country that we have en element of migration and embrace that, if not because your views are racist?

This.

@Nat6999 I'd love those who support completely open borders to tell us what benefits the majority of Roma have brought? Low educational standards means they aren't doctors or nurses. Those in Sheffield that you mention are from Slovakia, around 5000.

One small point, they aren't PUT in a specific area of the city, the houses where most have settled are not great quality, private, fairly cheap lets. News gets out, and they follow those already here. There is a house that has recently been turned into a police station to try and keep a lid on the on street disturbances and violence.

The lengths illegal immigrants take to get to a safe country is heartbreaking because it shows how awful their country is. I couldn't be tough and send them back but realistically we can't help everyone. There's whole countries full of people suffering but England is tiny compared to the world. There has to be a limit really otherwise we will sink. It's just having the right balance

Not necessarily, just foolish.

Without at least some migration, there would be very little overseas trade, and life would be pretty grim if we existed only on home produced materials. And in the long term our culture is enriched by outside influences. It has been since the Romans invaded.

I can also see the argument from the point of view of a Brit who has spent 10 years on a housing waiting list and then someone who arrived last week takes a scarce house or flat. It's easy to see how resentment starts especially for single males who get shunted down the queue. That's not necessarily racist either, it's just desperate.

Sometimes people are too quick to call the racist card, without understanding the underlying reason.

Strictly speaking, in terms of services, we have too many old white people. Around 20% of the UK population are white people aged 60+, people who are less likely to be providing services and increasingly likely to be using them.

Ageist and insulting. You do know the current retirement age is 66, due to increase eventually to 68, don’t you? If people manage to get to 68 after the best part of half a century working, I think they’ve bloody well earned the right to use the services that they’ve paid for!

No , just xenophobic . I can’t think of anything worse than a place with nil multiculturalism.

OP starts thread and doesn't return??? Journalist?

It's interesting that here in NZ immigration is very tightly restricted only to those who can achieve the stringent education, income and experience criteria that is set by a very left wing labour government who want to limit it to protect the cultural capital and low income populations here. The criteria massively favour western white applicants.

It's the right wing opposition who want to throw open the borders for commercial and capitalist reasons.

No one is calling Jacinda and her government racist for doing so.

I would like to see net immigration reduced close to zero. I don’t think my reasons are racist or xenophobic. It would still mean hundreds of thousands of people immigrating to the U.K. each year to balance the hundreds of thousands leaving.

England, which is where most immigrants settle, is already very densely populated compared to most countries. In Europe, I think we tie with the Netherlands for top place.

For over twenty years net immigration has increased the U.K. population by a million every 3 to 5 years. Do we just carry on like this for the rest of the century until we reach 100 million people? That’s a lot of land to be built on.

We already rely on other countries to feed us. We are in danger of losing some of our land If sea levels rise as predicted. Surely we should be trying to increase our self sufficiency, not be covering farmland with buildings?

We criticise other countries for destroying their countryside and the habitats of their native species. Is it okay for us to do it because hedges and meadows and bats and bees and hedgehogs aren’t as majestic?

Nimbys get a bad press, but often they are just trying to protect beautiful areas of our country from developers.

There have been a number of threads this week on the insanity that is U.K. house prices, NHS waiting lists, school places. If we stabilised the population for a decade or two, it would enable the infrastructure to catch up.

Importing more people to deal with our ageing population is just putting off dealing with the problem. Immigrants also get old! They also put demands on services, even while easing those demands.

I do have some ideas as to how we could deal with the ageing population, but I won’t bore on. I do genuinely welcome people coming to the U.K., and the opportunity for us to emigrate, I just think it should be balanced.

Not sure if always racist or just ignorant. I think more people should remember that it is pure chance that you are or aren't born into a safe country. We are all just molecules etc.

Be careful what you wish for. It will happen to you too

I think the OP about zero migration is silly, but there are issues with migration that should be discussed and examined in a mature adult way but unfortunately it just tends to go with extremes. For example people say bringing up culture is racism in disguise but it surely stands to reason that if you have mass migration into an area then culture will change. It can have issues on social cohesion in society.

American or a German coming and taking jobs

Probably the American or German will go back home at some point unless they marry in. Expats tend to do that.

I only dislike unskilled migration.

If you have a pool of essentially unlimited unskilled labour, it supresses wages at the bottom and distorts the market. A young migrant with no family from a poorer country will accept poor living conditions (cramped overcrowded houseshares etc) for a few years because the remittances or money they can save is worth so much more in their home country. They can effectively undercut the local workforce who need wages that are high enough to support living he long term, in decent conditions for families etc.

I have no issues with migrants who fill skilled labour shortages, come here through the right channels with visas etc.

No one wants zero immigration. People who say that are just parroting a soundbite and have zero understanding.

I think it was 'net 0' migration, not '0 migration'. I.e. if 25,000 people permanently leave the country each year, 25,000 people may stay permanently.

Question for those who fully support all immigration without question: do you think it is just a question of building more to keep up with the numbers of people coming in? Do you think there is ever a point when we might need to control for numbers? E.g. when the UK population hits 80 million? 100 million? 200 million?

Is that because they believe and trust the correct policy is in place, or because they are racist?

Some really very sensible responses that pick up on the issues we face as a country with the high number of migrants to this country but without actually coming across as racist and/or xenophobic.

It's given me a new perspective that perhaps there is a conversation to be had about the controls and how maybe we could manage that better.

I also think the government cuts have probably accelerated a lot of the issues which is also a factor in the schools - hospital waiting lists etc.

In fact I'm going to further my previous post. Why do we still have countries? Surely by now we should be mature enough to understand we are all born on the same planet, regardless of which piece of land we all share the Earth and are equally responsible for it. Land borders and countries are established based on Levens from long ago, in reality they have little relevance to now. One world with properly shared resources would surely be better for all than how hings are now. I realise, by the way, that this would never happen for a great number of reasons.

Not racist but able to see that small island w. limited resources (housing, school places, doctors, dentists, beds in maternity units etc) can only support x no of people before the systems are under strain.

I just don't agree with unskilled unlikely to ever contribute to anything culturally or economically illegal jump On a boat at Calais not fleeing war or persecution immigration

Wow, have you not lived in another country? Human beings have very different cultures and belief systems, some of which are very incompatible. Boundaries draw a line so while we can criticise other countries, we do not have to constantly fight them to preserve our way of life (or force our ways on others, which has worked out so well in the Middle East 🤦‍♀️).

@MintyFreshOne I have lived in five different countries on 3 different continents! We all managed to get on everywhere we were even with differing cultures and beliefs.

Yes they're racist, ignorant or afraid of anyone who is 'different '. Migration is a part of life. Deal with it.

They are also people who often believe everything in the right wing press. But the right wing press is so good at making out it's all the immigrants or the EU's fault to distract us from the fact that 9 times out of 10 it's the Tory government's fault.

We have issues with housing/ health service due to years and years of under investment and trashing of public services. Nothing to do with immigrants, that's the government's fault.

I did also say I realised it wouldn't happen. I just think it isn't right that some people have safety and others don't purely due to where they are born. Why are those born in a safe place the only ones entitled to it.