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.

To be blunt, people are worried about cultural incompatability and social changes when large percentages of the immigrants are from Muslim countries.

Let them come in i might get a good man out of it.

😃

Ok if that’s the case then I don’t understand why people who come here don’t just use, or are made to use the private system, if it’s the same cost? This would relieve some of the pressure on the nhs which is struggling to cope with the existing population never mind 1M more people every year who are able to use it after making a one off payment.

How, exactly, would you do anything about it?
We need details not just pious hopes and hand wringing.
So far neither party has come up with anything that works.

I love the rolling English countryside. To go for a lovely long walk in it imagining I’m on a Jane Austen novel. I would hate to see it destroyed for the purpose of building new homes. That’s the only issue I really have.

Well. I've read some naice, complacent, la la la, fingers in my ears shit on mumsnet in my time but this thread....do people really believe that this volume, this intake, over and over and over, is just....lovely....er, 'diversity', and it's all just always great? You know, cos 'fruit picking'? Whataboutery, i.e. what about native people, loads of them are useless too...doesnt really make the numbers of useless coming in a good thing, does it? What with the country being in such great shape? You're all mental. And vair fair well orf I dare say. But wrong. Though I'm sure you're vair naice! Not putting a big fuck off migrant centre next to your lovely house are they, what what!!

But then we are poaching healthcare workers from countries where they have studied and paid for their training.

Surely that's a bit immoral?

Yes. We've always had lots of migrants - but our country now has to limit numbers to those needed to fill job vacancies. Not all migrants are doctors or nurses or care workers.
In my grandson's primary class, most of the children don't have English as their 1st language and that's bound to have had an effect on his education. The cost of housing has rocketed because we have a shortage of housing - and if we build over a wider area to house the current population, bang goes our open countryside.
We have to face the fact that we can't give a home to everyone who wants to come here. And if we allow all the boat people in, we might just as well say that we no longer have any borders at all.

Don't be silly. Read the thread and try and think beyond your own preconceptions. There is actual debate occurring, no matter how much you try and paint everyone on MN as being a bleeding heart liberal with an enormous house 🙄

In reality its not really possible to be a legal asylum seeker to the uk if you came by boat. If you passed through another safe country (eg France, Spain) on your way and chose not to stop there, you are an economic migrant. The concept of aslyum is about seeking asylum in the first safe country you reach which is almost never the uk as we are an island.
Obviously the reality is people have other reasons to want to come to the uk over france (perhaps they speak soe English or have family here) but the fact still remains if you are fleeing war /persecution there are many safe countries you pass through before reaching the UK.

There should be limitations on which universities can sponsor visas. Imperial, LSE, Oxbridge, Manchester etc - fine. Getting a visa for a masters in International Business Studies from the University of Bedfordshire? Ridiculous.

We have plenty of Muslims here and have done so for many year I've lived alongside and worked with many before retirement, plus people of other religions and cultures. They all integrated well whilst keeping their own traditions.. Their children went to school with mine, are now members of the community with kids of their own.

We are a cosmopolitan and multicultural society and I see no reason not to embrace that. Nobody is interfering with what I like or my beliefs and neither would they attempt to.

You are being disingenuous .

An 'actual debate' you say? Well that's me told. Silly Billy that I am 😀

Positive net migration is a good thing IF we have the homes, infrastructure and NHS to support it. That said, we should still offer a refuge to those seeking it as it is the right and humane thing to do. It's up to the (currently shit) government to fix the other issues. Cancel HS2 for a start but I can't see the current gov/PM having the balls for the large and necessary changes.

Most students go home afterwards, regardless of what they study or where.

‘The boats’
I live in a seaside town we have never seen any of ‘The Boats’. In order to STOP THE BOATS there actually have to be some. I hate this term it’s just meant to spread fear and hatred.

I find this issue so hard. I live in an area that’s very poor and very diverse and has been for many years. It’s only in recent times that I have noticed a really bad decline in the area. Sometimes the type of immigration that comes into an area can make it a challenge to live in. We have had an influx of people move into the area. They are not refugees but economic migrants. It’s hard because they don’t really care about the area they just want to make money. It really does have a negative impact on your community. There is also a lot of people trafficking and dodgy business going on which is really horrible.

What I find hard is that we are gaslit about being concerned about change in our communities for the worse and told not to be racist. Why are we not allowed to be concerned about an influx of people who are not invested in the area? (The answer is because it’s a poor and undesirable area ).

The crucial bit people miss is 'you do so as soon as is practicable' - if you have passed through france and did not claim asylum there you did not 'do so as soon as was practicable'. To claim asylum legally you are supposed to do so in the first safe country you reach.
That is almost never the UK, purely for geographical reasons because we are an island and there are many safe countries situated between the UK and most of the areas people are travelling from.

Perhaps you should try and contribute to it?

Where are you getting your idea that everyone is a posho with a lovely house who doesn't live near any immigration centres from? There have been many people who have expressed concern about infrastructure and the environment, for example. What are your thoughts on it?

PS "vair naice" went out with the Ark.

That doesn't change my view. I am from a small city with a crap university. Renting somewhere on a low salary is now basically impossible as all the accommodation that was one low-cost is now student HMOs, and the only housing that seems to get built is more and more student flats. Driving standards have dropped dramatically (I know this sounds extremely 'think of the children!' but it's true). I wouldn't care so much if the university was producing graduates with good degrees, but it's not.

The net migration figure is what we are encouraged to obsess about. What isn't revealed is how many migrants, and with what skills, we need and in what industries, probably because that work hasn't been done by government.

What exercises me far more is the number of unprocessed migrants living at the tax-payers expense. Some 750,000 people who deserve far better than losing their independence and living lives largely without purpose. If they were processed, those eligible to stay would be contributing through taxation, rather than being a cost. We have had hints too that the Home Office doesn't know exactly who is here and where they are. This uncertainty fuels the anti-immigrant agenda which has become so prominent. All in all, a dog's breakfast and one we should be seeing as a state failure.

Exactly this. Fancy the same happening to I dunno Islington, North London or Hampstead eh and let’s see how policy would change….

the middle and upper classes are just useful idiots to these people chanting ‘choose love’ and calling any working class folk with genuine concerns bigots and right wing.

it’s insanity. Things will change once those kind of people realise a shift. It’s all well and good when you don’t have to send your child to a school where 96% of children don’t speak English as a first language…

Why are you posting this in AIBU and not in News?