to be annoyed at so much racism re “the boat people”

[NavyOrca]

A large hotel local-ish to us (around 10 miles away) is currently closed for bookings as it is being occupied by just under 400 asylum seekers.

Recently, in our village and a couple of neighbouring ones, there has been a spate of parcels being stolen from doorsteps. I’m sure you can all work out who has taken the blame for this….! Even though one of the perpetrators is known to be a local lad, born and bred in our village, some people are still blaming others..

The comments on Facebook community groups are disgusting.

Since when has it been acceptable to so readily stick the blame upon those literally fleeing their countries?

I honestly feel that as a human race, we are devolving.

You don't know what his background is. He may have grown up without care or security. It may not be as extreme, but there are home grown problems too.

This really resonates for me OP. Our local hotel was also commissioned for housing asylum seekers back in 2021. There was uproar in the village and the amount of racist rhetoric on Facebook was horrible. (To the extreme of one person posting that it wouldn't be safe for women to walk in the village as men from the hotel would be waiting to rape them. 🤔) It's still used for housing purposes now, although it's broadened from asylum seekers to include other vulnerable groups of people.

To this day if anything remotely antisocial happens in the village yoi can guarantee someone will post something along the lines of "bet this was our friends in the XX hotel". It never is. It's usually kids from a particular area of the village, but perish the thought it's 'one of us' and not 'one of them'. I despair OP but I don't think you can argue back with reason as most people who hold racist views are entrenched in them.

1. There is no obligation for asylum seekers to stay in the first safe country they reach (though most do; it's why places like Turkey, Colombia or Uganda host so many)
2. Often asylum seekers try to reach places where they have social networks already established
3. Many people already speak English which makes it easier to integrate
4. Sometimes asylum seekers have no choice where they go but are sent to specific destinations by smugglers
5. France registers many more asylum claims than the UK

I would have thought the last week or two seeing the reality of what Syrians were fleeing would have led to a bit more compassion in regard to other asylum seekers.

@Kianai what a horrific experience.
I wish we could grant asylum to every woman and girl trapped in these vile misogynist regimes.
We can't of course.
I read about Afghanistan and Iran etc and think - females are just subhumans there.

Shouting ‘racism’ won’t change the direction of this debate. People are not happy about uncontrolled immigration.

This genie won’t be put back in the bottle. In fact the more faux wide eyed dismay you show at the ‘racists’, the more you are fanning a movement against your own so-called liberal views.

Grow up and stop calling people racist to shut them up. It doesn’t work anymore.

I just have to say this is a really common misconception. It's not just young men, our hotel is actually mostly families, women and young children (and a few solo men). Loads of comments on our village Facebook group were expressing anger about 'hundreds of young men' invading our village and it simply isn't the case. 99% of people staying there literally stay in and around the hotel and seem afraid to do anything that might lead to negative repurcussions for them.

The irony of this is that these self proclaimed rainbows and daisies type anti-racists have the highest levels of white saviour syndrome.

Wait until a brown person comes along and speaks against high levels of immigration, then the be kind brigade show their true colours (pardon the pun) and spew bile against what they consider to be ‘brown racists’.

Out of 400 men some of them will be criminals. Just a numbers game. I mean they entered a country illegally. We have similar, a local hotel is being used. We've had a few issues with them creeping round gardens, peering in windows and stealing bikes, all on video. All fairly petty but scary for my elderly neighbours living alone seeing a group of men staring in their windows!
Large numbers of jobless bored men are going to be a problem anywhere.

France is incredibly hostile to those in the camps near Calais. We’re talking taking away shelter in minus temperatures. Plus France do take their fair share, as do all of the EU countries - some way more than us. Why shouldn’t we take our share? What makes us so special that we don’t get to do that?

We have no housing at all in our county - none - can they come and live with you?

@Petrasings I have room for one, just about, so yes, one can come and live with me.

The OP wasn't talking about the homeless though. She was talking about people speculating on who is pinching things.

What @Rubytuesday77 Said also all these people don't seem to realise, that we haven't got the resources to keep housing all these people.
It's having a bad effect on our NHS or kids or veterans can't get houses, you are lucky to get a drs appointment all because we have too many people in this country and not enough resources.
Also if these people are so wonderful why are they mostly men, I know some women come with there husbands but that is a small percentage, if these men are that decent why are they not bringing their wives, girlfriends or mothers, why are they leaving them in danger

If these men (because that is mainly what they are) are 'refugees', why are they travelling through several safe European countries to access Britain? What war-torn persecution are they escaping in France? And why do most of these men see fit to leave their families behind?

'Refugees' are defined as victims of persecution and war, who enter countries through legitimate and legal ways. These individuals deliberately choose to enter illegally, and many of whom are economic migrants, from Albania etc.

Perhaps the unlocal man isn't escaping a warzone and conscription, escaping tribal warfare. Maybe they're gay.

The unlocal man has probably had more opportunities and not taken them. Let's be honest every neighborhood has it's neds and it's low lives.

@Petrasings - I'm wondering if you're the kind of person who would have refused to sell a house to my father in the 1960s, because he didn't have a British passport. Like I said, racism isn't new.

I can think of two reasons off the top of my head.

1. They already speak English and hope this will help them get work in the future and any children will find it easier to integrate in schools vs. having to learn a new language somewhere else.

1. They have family here/unrelated people from the same background/community and they want to settle closer to them.

Both reasons are logical from their standpoint. I can't blame them for wanting to settle here.

I get tired of hearing all this your racist bile from the fluffy clouds and rainbow brigade .
It's not racisf to wonder about the practicalities of absorbing millions of unknown young men . Where are they going to live . How are they going to integrate . How are they going to change a cultural mindset that women are inferior . How can we afford it all .
I would have far less issue if we had the infrastructure to cope .

Bloody hell the replies on this post are depressing.

And how did they hear that? They heard it from the very same racists posting online about free housing, free cars from the council, and all the trimmings. Racists are not smart people. If they were, they would do the exact opposite and publicise how shit life is for asylum seekers in the UK.

My sister lives near an asylum hotel. There are many young men from the hotel who hang around the swimming centre, you know the ones with big windows? They like hanging by the doors and look in the windows when young kids come after school for their swim lessons 😢😡😡. The whole family now vote Reform and who can blame them?

I live in lovely leafy green rural where they never put up asylum hotels. Plenty of 'kind' locals go to the nearest city to protest for more immigration/anti racist ideologies. But they don't live next door to these hotels in that same city. For naice, kind and inclusive sorts they seem to have had a collective empathy lobotomy when it comes to white working class. So many people I know who were lab/con have either said they will vote Reform or have actually joined the party! Young people! There will be an earthquake at the next election bigger than Brexit and the naice brigade have stuffed their ears and eyes so they will be shell shocked. But not anyone who listens to what is actually going on in this country.

My daughter was at a university on the south coast. She was constantly followed by men home trying to talk to her in broken english. She was actually quite scared and it made her unwell. Yes it is a problem.

I’m sorry to hear of your experiences. Although the fishermen I talked to said there were women and very sadly small children coming in on these boats too, not just men. I can’t quote statistics as this account was straight from the people pulling these people out of the sea.

I do think we need to do more to help any women and children in those situations. I really do.

Also we have laws, cultural norms and values, I do believe that anyone making their home here needs to take those on board or go back. So anyone thinking it’s OK to rape a woman on the street should be stuck on the first plane to their country of origin.

I agree about religion, it’s so often a force for evil, but there’s been enough of that here looking at various scandals over the years.

"Where did the OP say the asylum seekers were all male?"

She didn't, but it is the case that the overwhelming majority of refugees crossing the channel are young men. This from the BBC a couple of weeks ago:

"In the year to September 2024 ... Where recorded, more than 80% were male. About 40% were between 25 and 39 years old."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53699511

It's the same here in Ireland, I live in a small town, & we have a provision centre here & have had for at least 6/7 years, the people in it are lovely,there has never been a problem with the centre, I think maybe 1 incident but that was within the centre & non violent. There are some loud voices in the town about it & funnily enough these are people who have been homed by our council, receive benefits etc. Kids from the centre go to my son's school & they are great kids,polite,& thankfully treated with respect & care like all the kids. I've been walking in my town in the dark many times alone & never felt fear or worry more than I would generally. I know there are bad apples but there are plenty of those in our own community before pointing the finger at others 🤷🏻‍♀️

I agree.

We should offer refuge to those in need and it’s ok to be concerned about large numbers of young men moving to communities poorly equipped to integrate them. Both statements can be true.

Roughly 50% of applications for asylum are refused (more men are refused than women and more men apply in the first place). If we believe the system properly assesses applicants then it’s valid to be concerned regarding the large numbers of mainly male illegal immigrants.