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.

France is a safe country. Nobody needs to risk a child's life by putting them in a small boat. Nobody should be allowed to enter the UK in this way.

Why not? They want jobs. They can train, just like British people can. They are economic migrants, and if they identify a big area of employment that needs workers I promise they will train to do it.

So what are we supposed to do? Just let everyone in?

"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)."

I never understand this foolishness @Feelingathomenow. Why would you give away your best paid highly skilled jobs to immigrants and leave the low paid jobs to indigenous people who then start complaining?

Please apply some intelligence and common sense to the issue. What you need to do is look at our falling birth rate and ask how our society is going to keep on paying for itself, when tax revenues inevitably also fall. Then think about how to 1. raise the birth rate and 2. replace the lost population with immigrants.

What kinds of immigrants? Those needed by the economy, such as child psychologists, which we are currently lacking, by almost 300,000 (out of 80000 required).

And where should they come from? Mainly countries whose cultures are similar to our own (and I don't mean white British, but also other populations that have a presence here, like Turkish or Indian/Pakistani).

Then you need to lend a hand to a small number of people in need, refugee populations for example, through a tightly targetted operation through our embassies overseas and work with the French to stop boats coming across the channel. And stop supporting policies which create wars, conflicts and environmental disasters around the world and sends waves of migrants to our shores. It's all linked.

What you are doing by shouting nonsense like this, OP is following far right agendas which are designed to make us turn on our neighbours and hate each other. It doesn't solve the situation.

I am mixed race so obviously one set of my grandparents are not white. They came here legally and found legal work. Why are the majority of asylum seekers on boats men? It costs so much money to keep them in hotels, fed etc. Meanwhile, their mums, sisters etc are still in a country deemed dangerous. There needs to be a strict limit that the UK accepts.

Why were Ukranians welcomed, but Afghanis not? Couldn't we have argued that they all should stay there and fight and sort themselves out? Of course not.

I don't think any of use who have not been in a Taliban like government or a war zone can blithely say...oh, something for you lot to sort out.

We can agree to disagree about that.

We need people to build houses. We all agree with that. So we should have a national building campaign making these people do that or make them work on farms wherever they are needed. But the problem is, nobody seems to coordinate this. I'm telling you, people doesn't matter what government is at top. It's like they cannot organise a p* up in a brewery.

Climate change is going to be the next reason the left deploys to justify millions pouring in.

Why not? They want jobs. They can train, just like British people can.

God this is naive.
There is a vast cultural gulf. These men are largely not suitable for providing intimate care to opposite-sex elderly people, and no amount of training will change that.

Tbf I used to think as you did.

Because the crossing is bloody dangerous.

And expensive. Whole families indebted to pay for it. You send whoever has the best chance of making it.

I’m an immigrant who moved here in the early 90s as a child. I like multiculturalism and international cuisine… but it’s ridiculous how many people have come into this country.

I was trying to cross the street last month at a zebra crossing and NO ONE stopped their car to let me cross and eventually, I had to assert my right to cross by making an angry face and pointing at the zebra crossing light.

At a Turkish supermarket I was told not to be too polite just because I was waiting for my turn.

I’m sorry to say this but Katherine Birbalsingh is right - we need to promote British values to hold the people of this country together. Otherwise, it becomes lawless and nihilistic and much more conservative cultures will fill the vacuum.

I think 'we' got involved in Afghanistan because we followed the US in (just like we did in Iraq). Afghanistan has been a pawn in games played by global superpowers for a very long time. Let's not pretend we, or any other nation, went in to kick out any of the successive regimes there because we're such caring, concerned types.

Do they? Do you have any stats to show many many of the recent 906,000 have entered care roles?

Hysteria about imaginary lines on maps and dividing human beings into imaginary tribes, while the Earth burns and we destroy our own habitat.

What an utterly stupid species we are.

Reporting on this is so poor. So 750,000 more people came in than left. okay. I have a lot of questions.
1 Who were the people who left?
2 of the people who came in - includig the 750,000, how many are coming over on boats or illegally? Who are the rest and where are they coming from.

How can anyone get het up abot imigration without wanting to know the basic answers to these questions is beyond me. I mean, how can anything be addressed if we don't know the answers to these questions. Do these 750000 people bring increased productivity, skills and GDP? Are they all benefit scroungers? Where are they moving to? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? The people who are leaving - why are they leaving? how many of them are leaving - is this number up or down? Do we want those wh oare leaving to leave or would we rather they stayed?

@Alicecatto @Littlemissgobby - completely agree

This migration is legal and illegal that figure you are quoting and I have Pakistani carers thatbcame here recently

Where PhD students come in, dependents are allowed. A lot of these students stay. The decrease in numbers from the previous year is mostly dependent families of workers and students. It’s not true all students go home. When they come from poor countries, that’s not the case of dependents are here.

Im amazed we issue this number of visas to come and work here. I guess it ties in with the Brits not working. We are importing the labour as Brits retire early or care for others or are happy on benefits with a bit of part time work.

I’m not pretending anything but nonetheless a vast amount was spent trying to reform the society, many lives were lost and there’s precious little to show for it. This gives some flavour of the cultural values ingrained in Afghanistan ( Afghan men) and I’d argue they are not terribly compatible with European values.

Because there are highly skilled jobs that we cannot fill immediately- yes we need to sort out British people training and taking those jobs but selective immigration will plug the gap in the meantime. It’s fairly straightforward and how most other countries select immigrants, if you think this is nonsense I suggest you speak with almost every other developed country and tell their governments

They could go to a safer country near them. Why all the way to the UK? Instead, they decide they don't want to fight for their country and leave the women and children behind in a dangerous country.

Abso-fucken-lutely. Nailed it.

Lots of Ukrainians were families. We had several families with children who joined the local secondary school. Their mem stayed in Ukraine to fight.

The men in the boats have left women and children behind. It's the other way around

The problem is the predominately white, left wing middle class, living in their little bubble of whiteness - maybe they have a few black friends or a polish cleaner - who say immigration is not a problem and support large scale immigration. They aren’t directly affected by it! They aren’t stood in the park with their kids as the only British family there, feeling isolated and excluded in their own country! Their child isn’t the only white child in their class at school. They aren’t feeling unsafe by foreign men shouting at them and leering at them in the street. They are comfortably housed and aren’t having to compete for the council homes dwindling stock to house their family.