To be shocked at the net migration figures currently being discussed

[Feelingathomenow]

Yesterday’s figures discussed by the Tories stated that since 2010 the net migration figures to the UK has equalled the size of the population of Wales. Today we were told the figures to June 2023 showed a net migration figure of nearly 1 million for that year, for the year to June 2024 this had reduced to a mere 3/4 of a million. The numbers coming in of the boats per year alone is equal to a large town. AIBU to think this has to stop. We need to immediately crack down on people allowed into this country- limit it to urgently needed highly skilled jobs and start offshore processing (or similar) of the people who are here illegally (basically like many other countries).

We just can’t cope with those numbers. - no wonder our infrastructure is collapsing, we have a housing crisis etc.

I want to hear from the government how they are going to tackle it. We have heard from the Tories now it is over to Starmer.

I'm an immigrant. Moved here when headlines in the paper were all about corruption amongst the political elite, homeless were everywhere and headlines in the papers were all about people dying in hospital corridors because there were no beds available. I also remember that these problems were all laid at the door of..... Single mothers. The year was 1993. 1997 came, New Labour got elected, the homeless largely disappeared from the streetscape and it seemed people no longer died untreated in hospital corridors. By 2015, the homeless were back and the NHS in trouble again. Only this time apparently it's me and people like me. It's all the fault of immigrants! . These tactics are sooo transparent to anyone with an intact memory of the last but one Tory government.

I knew what I meant the immigrants that people are talking about are asylum seekers boat people that's why I said what I said

Oh not that idiot. Shit stirrer and control freak.

Britain doesn't take nearly as many immigrants as other countries like Germany do.

Look at what is happening in Germany at the moment. The AfD is on the verge of power. A country can't take in unlimited numbers of migrants and expect to remain socially and politically stable.

I'm not condoning it. But Germany is not longer the bastion of stability and prosperity it was a few short years ago.

The only way to achieve your goal successfully OP is to make everyone already here work full time and to fill all the jobs people here don’t want to do.

So Theoretically, the existing population could stop for need for high immigration.

Thanks so much some if us are not racist etc and we think immigrants are fine

We've heard from the Tories you say. Well we know they lied and they were in power for 14 years.

I actually think there’s a group of people living in cloud cuckoo land or just haven’t got the skills to connect the dots. We’ve had people on this thread state that no asylum seekers are housed in hotels! That Britains foundation was immigration, that it’s all Britains fault because of colonialism. People questioning the official statistics as somehow being too high. I do think there’s a group of people who seriously never come across immigrants outside some service situation. They haven’t got a clue.

Yes and the first thing that was said was they were sorry, they had not succeeded in reducing numbers, it’s a problem that has been building up over successive governments for decades.

Only thing is Labour is in charged now and deporting more immigrants than the tories. Reversed the law to ask Colombians to apply for a visa again as they are also concerned and trying to sort out the mess of the masses of people coming here. In the case of Colombia they realised most come to apply for asylum and decided to ask for visas again.

These sort of ‘who’s going to do the shitty jobs’ remarks make zero sense at all. Do you honestly believe there are an equal number of job vacancies in these ‘shitty’ jobs equal to the number of migrants coming here?

Are you also telling me that every single migrant that has come over here has gone into a shitty job that a British person didn’t want to? Don’t be ridiculous.

Also ex pats go to those countries and invest in the economy; they purchase homes, they spend their own money/pensions there. The issue is with migrants that DONT do that here; there is zero issue from most with migrants that do.

What a ridiculous race-baiting comment from the quoted PP.

I am a legal migrant and now a British citizen, dual with the USA. I came over twenty years ago for two reasons. One, to do a highly skilled job that a British citizen could not do. I came over with two graduate degrees in a specialist subject. I then married a British man and wanted to be with him. It is not an easy process at all, and very costly.

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/qa-immigration-fees-in-the-uk/

"Health and Care workers face the lowest cost from entry to citizenship (just under £5,100), because they do not have to pay the health surcharge. Outside of health and care, the total cost from entry to citizenship ranges from just over £11,200 for a Skilled Work visa holder with no family, to around £38,000 for a parent and child on a ten-year route to settlement. A skilled worker with a partner and two children would pay around £41,500 in total".

My various visas required a criminal check and biometrics (facial scan and fingerprints) which I paid for in addition to the visa fee, a document or two from every year I was here, the Britishness test, my tax documents, two character references, and I had to list any offence including traffic. I had an overdue parking meter charge from 35 years ago in the States for 10 dollars, and a 5-7 mph ticket for speeding from 1993, and had to write the DMV's in the USA to get the information and put it on the form, because you have to be of good character to be a British citizen. There is no such thing as a spent offense for an immigrant. I've been here 20 years and had not so much as a parking ticket. I even had to pay £350 to the Home Office for permission to get married outside an Anglican church (married in a civil ceremony)...that fee/scheme was later overturned by the EU Court of Human Rights, but I never got my money back from the Home Office. There was hysteria at the time over sham marriages, so hence this new scheme.

The vast majority of immigrants are legal, here to work or study, and most of those who study here go home. Small boats are a tiny percentage and are being used as a political football.

As @TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams noted, Our universities are in massive trouble partially because of the new visa restrictions for international students, which may mean tuition rises. Applications decreased by 16% across the board from international students..I know this as I just retired from a university affected by these changes. You'd be surprised how many graduate degree programmes in the UK function largely due to international students as tuition fees have been stagnant

If you read sources like Migration Observatory (University of Oxford), you'll see that according to the 2021 Census in England and Wales, 41% of those born abroad had a university degree, compared to 25% of people born in the UK. Migrants were more ethnically diverse, healthier, and more likely to live in privately rented accommodation

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migrants-in-the-uk-an-overview/

I myself privately rented, then bought a house, and will buy another one. I have not taken one penny of benefits... I don't have children. I've used the NHS about three times...two pap smears, brith control, and for a bad back rectified by five weeks at an osteopath. The bad back was from overwork.

Lastly, predictions are that migration will decrease...from the University of Oxford: "In our baseline scenario, net migration falls to 337,000 by 2032, roughly similar to pre-Brexit levels. This decline results from assumed decreases in work and study visa migration following the early 2024 policy changes. It is offset by falling emigration in subsequent years. . . .That said, the conclusion that net migration is likely to fall from its 2022 peak holds true under a wide range of assumptions. Even if immigration for all categories remained at 2023 levels—including work visa holders, whose numbers have already declined sharply—projected net migration in the model still falls to around 500,000 due to rising emigration."

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/reports/why-are-the-latest-net-migration-figures-not-a-reliable-guide-to-future-trends/

So, there probably will be fewer migrants here anyhow. I love the UK, I love my British husband, but I don't love the demonisation of immigrants. It is just is really unfortunate.

Starner speaking now and just said the conservatives had an open border policy so basically it happened under them

why are you conflating highlighting the problems of immigration with racism? People doing that are preventing any meaningful discussion round ab issue all main parties both here and abroad think is a real issue. You’re adding to the problem

Impact on the countryside? Only 6.2% of land in England is taken up by homes and gardens. The reason it feels so packed is that we don't have access to most of our land.

This is compounded further by the concentration of immigrants in areas already under stress from 14 years of cuts and lack of investment in infrastructure.

I agree with you, OP.

The pressure that our spiralling population puts on our already underfunded services such as the NHS, schools, benefits etc is just becoming too much for it to bear. The difficulty in accessing these services is contributing massively to the discontent we're seeing now.

I truly believe that genuine asylum claimants should be welcomed and helped to integrate. But I believe some arrivals are coming here purely for economic purposes. And we need to find ways to process claims better than we do now.

I'm tired that people who think this way are being labelled as far right, racist, xenophobic and all the rest. Using labels like these is just a way to shut down debate and ways to find helpful solutions. Resorting to slurs like these just tells me they've lost the argument.

The landscape has changed. The sheer numbers of immigrants plus the changed character of certain areas and towns means that a lot of people who were previously pro or unbothered are starting to feel alarmed. I'm one of them.

Dismissing it as racism isn't really useful and certainly isn't effective any longer.

I have never agreed with something so much in all my life!!

I think when people on this thread are saying they want a war it's an invasion and other tropes yes some are racist. Want a debate fine but some are racist. Xenophobic

Oh what a surprise -Starmer blaming the Tories, it’s been happening for decades. So apart from blaming the Tories what’s Starmer going to do. Ship British citizens to Rwanda to make room. Provide ferries for a safer crossing?

Omg what did I just read! Shocking

No worries OP, I’m out as soon as my contract ends 🙏
every little helps

Nope uf you debate reasonably you r not far right big bloody difference from saying all of them want a war on the streets etc. I read what people put and some are very defo that way

You are living in a fantasy land. They are here 'just' for the money too.

My work took me to many UK care homes, I will not be shocked in a few years when the scandals start coming out. Look at the care of disabled people in some of the countries these carers are coming from (and I include my own country in that) from what I've seen those attitudes certainly are being imported from some.

Like everything else, there are good and bad in every race. Every country. But you are sticking your head in the sand if you believe that all cultures are compatible with the western values I desperately wanted to escape to. It is not manageable and will change everything you take for granted.

And there are a LOT of British women working in care, if immigartion wasnt keeping the pay down maybe more could see it as a viable profession. It's a shame they will have no chance of ever being properly rewarded for their work.

What incentives do you think the government or employers will have to EVER make jobs more attractive and actually properly pay people, when any shortages are immediately filled with cheap labour?

Actually, no that isn’t racist - is a fear that might be true on certain levels esp round issues on culture.