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.

The vast majority come to work.

What I don't get is how people look at a human who has crossed an entire sea. risking their life on a boat trying to desperately grab a future, and thinks 'sponge.'
What's gone wrong there?

A bit paper makes someone a legal immigrant or not. Nobody has a "right" to go anywhere. Those rights can be changed with the stroke of a pen. See Brexit for details.

Look up the meaning of net migration.....

The fact is that some towns have been completely changed by immigration. It’s not hard to look around and see how much this country has changed in my lifetime and in the last 20 years in particular.

Yes, that's what a peaceful country does, they take in people seeking asylum (men or women) and they process them. In the meantime, they don't allow those people to die or come to harm. That's called civilisation. It's what was done during World War 2 for Jews fleeing Nazis (though even then people complained).

Believe me, if war broke out in the UK tomorrow, you'd be damn fucking glad to be housed in a hotel in Belgium while seeking asylum.

A massive chunk are students coming to private/boarding schools, universities etc. Another chunk are shortage occupation workers particularly in health and social care.
Loads are family who accompany these.

I mean, my town alone has two hotels fully occupied by immigrants awaiting processing.... So, they are.

Every sinlge person in and out when you drive passed is a young male, not a female or child to be seen

True

I guess no one in the UK should be able to emigrate to Australia or New Zealand then.

That's uo to the New Zealand or Austrailian government to decide.

That's exactly my point.

Most places DO limit the amount of UK ex pats and have regulations

We might need some immigration but this level is not sustainable- our public services are already collapsing. There’s just too many people coming into the country vs leaving. Can you honestly not see that this is a problem?

i try not to comment on/speak about this usbject as it can get so heated.

But those people pay thousands to cross the sea. i read that it would be a lot cheaper to get a passport and holiday visa, then out-stay their welcome here - hugely safer and cheaper. But they don't want to do this because then their true identity, age etc exists in our system - some of them don't want to be known?

Admittedly i keep meaning to read more about all that but just never get the time!

If we get as much people as we can now and ride out the pain of managing it, we will benefit later on. Population across the western world is collapsing. We can't make people unwelcome now and then beg them to come later on - it won't work.

Most are coming from France, not a war zone.

We need health Care workers in our NHS. I would welcome a government scheme like that would employ doctors and nurses etc from abroad. Fewer of our own British young people are able to afford the long training required to qualify as doctors.

Not sure where "this country was built on immigration" comes from. It's a convenient myth. Mass migration is a recent (post-war) phenomenon. We've never relied on immigration in the way that the U.S. has.

In the early decades of the 20th century there was concern about so many people leaving the country for the New World. And before you cite the Romans, Vikings, Saxons, Normans etc. that wasn't mass migration and the country didn't rely on it.

Many are taken advantage of - they don't know there are other routes and they are told by unscrupulous people that this is the only way to get in.
It is very very sad to see someone struggling across the sea in a boat. How could it be anything else? No matter what a person is like, what they've done, no one wants to end up there, no one plans that for their child.

It fascinates me that people like you miss the point spectacularly. Of course people know they are human. It’s precisely because of those human needs like housing, healthcare, schools, employment etc that people are concerned. Who is paying for all this extra resource? Where are all the houses going to come from? How will an already beleaguered NHS cope?

That’s before all the other concerns about what kind of male dominated, patriarchal cultures and worldviews we are importing.

They are all legitimate concerns and your gaslighting response doesn’t help to advance the debate about what we actually need and want for our society.

You're quite right. This country was built on the blood of the many millions of people Britain killed and exploited across the world.

Yes we stayed in a London hotel and was perplexed to find a small child on his bike in the lift. We got out on the wrong floor. Found a security guard sat on a chair lots of noise and mingling in the corridors - apparently these were immigrants housed in the hotel.

Also see the riots, this confirmed immigrants were housed in hotels.

We live by the coast, again lots of the hotels have been contracted by the home office to take migrants. It’s affecting the local economy. Tourists spend lots in bars,shops, restaurants etc, immigrants don’t. Processing needs to move offshore.

Right so you would get in a dinghy and cross the sea from France?

Nope, those won't be illegal migrants, they'll be asylum seekers awaiting processing.

If you can't even take the time to learn the differences between what an illegal migrants and an asylum seeker is, then I'm not sure you should be forming an opinion on the subject at all.

If you have a baby, who is paying for that extra resource? It's a genuine question.

I use the ferry, but then I don't tear up my passport before I get to my destination.