AIBU to think the reason why many Asylum seekers come to UK is...

[SmallBoats]

a direct result of our imperialist past? People come to the UK in many instances because they are English speakers. English is widely spoken due to the massive British empire which used to exist. The British empire milked its territories, greatly increased its wealth despite causing massive human suffering in the process. The direct result of this is that English became a widely spoken language worldwide. It therefore isn't surprising many people seeking refuge from war torn countries try to get to the UK as they already speak English.

It's not a competition. More than one person can work hard.

There’s interviews by BBC etc where they’ve asked asylum seekers why they’re choosing the UK over say, France or Italy, and the response is often better training/opportunities. Including from the ones who don’t speak English.

In 2002 there were 84,132 asylum applications to the U.K.

That number then steadily dropped every year until 2010 when it began rising again.

I wonder why?

@verdantverdure

You should look at general figures.

Unless you think the U.K. is alone in this trend. It’s clearly not.

A fair few on mn are entirely oblivious to global trends.

@honoldbrist

We used to have that here, didn't we?

You used to get Jobseeker's Allowance if you'd paid in in the last two years and was it Income Support if you hadn't?

Now everyone's being moved onto Universal Credit I think.

2023

110 million displaced people.

43.3 million are children.

69% were taken in by a neighbouring country to the one they left.

75% were taken in by low or middle income countries

Germany hosted 2.5 million

Does anyone know how many the U.K. has taken in?

How many refugees are there in the UK?

According to UNHCR statistics, as of November 2022 there were 231,597 refugees, 127,421 pending asylum cases and 5,483 stateless persons in the UK. The war in Ukraine drove a large increase from the previous year.

The vast majority of refugees globally – 4 out of 5 – stay in their region of displacement, and consequently are hosted by developing countries. Turkey now hosts the highest number of refugees with 3.7 million, followed by Colombia with 1.7 million.

And because an Indonesian person can talk to a Finn via their shared second language, English speaking nations become preferred destinations for migration. There's no other global language. They may have nothing else in common, but they can communicate.

What's that got to do with finding a safe country to seek asylum in? "I'm Indonesian, oh I might want to talk to a Finn, I'd better schlep across multiple countries to get to England" ?!

OP, you need to learn about French Guiana, Syria, Belgian Congo, South Africa, Morrocco... etc etc. None of them colonised by the British. None of them with English as the first language.

South Africa was colonised by the British. It was part of the British empire

I don’t think any of the other countries you mentioned have English as a first language.

Not talking about that at all. Just saying the mostly likely shared language between two foreigners is ENGLISH.

Finland and Indonesia fairly randomly were chosen because they are on opposite sides of the planet and have little in common, but I'm happy to be told otherwise.

And the Dutch.

And that was my point about the other countries. They don't have English as a first language - and weren't colonised by the British - so why are they coming here?

What "war torn countries" that have English as a first language are they, OP?

There's plenty of countries where English may not be a first language, but it is spoken widely and fluently. You're being obtuse.

No, I'm not. The top five nationalities seeking asylum in the UK are Albania, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and India.

I'll grant you India.

Iraq was part of the British empire. Britain invaded Iraq quite recently and had been responsible for patching it up afterwards including giving refuge to many of the most vulnerable refugees. Britain also has a long history in Afghanistan. The decade long war in Syria was one of the most bloody and brutal in recent history and continues today at a low level. It caused 11 million refugees. Britain played a part in taking some of them, mainly through a resettlement scheme. UK involvement in the Iranian revolution was massive. Iran was part of the “informal” British empire vis a vis the oil industry.

And a lot of these wars are Cold War proxies being played out between Russia and the US & UK. We’re deeply involved in many of these places if not all of them, one way or another.

It's such a tragedy that English isn't spoken in any of the many safe countries that they pass through to fling themselves on to an unsafe boat to cross the channel to the UK, isn't it?

Yes, all those people definitely couldn't find a home in Italy, or France, or Germany, or Greece. Awful places that don't understand English.

A couple of question for those who are fine with the numbers of young overwhelmingly male economic migrants who enter the UK in these boats - do you really think there should be no limit on numbers? Don't you think this country might be slightly less of a 'shithole' if the money spent on this was redirected to other services and citizens of this country? The hotel accommodation is surely a minor part of the whole picture, in addition to the massive numbers of lawyers raking it in (see recent investigation into the bent ones too), translation services ( so much for the language being the major draw) etc etc. I'd really like some replies.

@Portakalkedi

A couple of question for those who are fine with the numbers of young overwhelmingly male economic migrants who enter the UK in these boats - do you really think there should be no limit on numbers?

I think generally people want to be seen as supportive of immigration. However not many would necessarily want their children in a class with a high number of EAL students. Their children maybe won't get a load of grade 8s & 9s at GCSE if the teacher has to include those not speaking English. I don't believe many liberal minded people would want a hostel full of young men (not working as they have no visa yet) in the building next to their house.. Especially if they have teenage girls. I think there's a lot of people who think it's a good idea in theory, and it comes from a good place. But as long as their own children aren't affected. Often the people living in poorer areas with less opportunities end up dealing with the problems associated with immigration. Then when they start to complain they are labelled as racist.

The UK doesn't take more refugees than other countries nor is it particularly geniueous.

I think our housing crisis is a result of immigration and selling off council houses without re investment into the local area. I love our diverse nation but the greedy people who wanted house prices to rise for their own benefit have not thought it through.

I think you'll find you have to blame the Americans for English being the lingua franca (see what I did there) these days.

@LakeTiticaca

Did you just do a copy and paste from the Daily Mail?

The domination of American culture is more important recently. Empire ended generations ago.