Why is there so much more anti immigration sentiment NOW?

[GreyWasp]

Half my family are Indian and came over in the 50s. My British Indian dad (born here) said he has always been very lucky to have not experienced much hate and discrimination. He has a wide friendship network of people from all backgrounds. I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist. Not at all, just that the environments my dad was placed in outright racism was minimal. And he felt pretty much like a normal British lad going to school, uni, clubs, bars etc. My white grandparents had their concerns in the 90s when my parents married mostly in regards to potential bullying any future grandchildren would experience but really they were fine with their marrying. I have genuinely never had one negative experience (granted I have been in somewhat privileged situations in middle class areas in the South plus am white passing but do look ambiguous when tanned).

In recent years I have noticed a shift (for the worse) in terms of negative sentiment towards immigrants/poc. For me, it’s the worst it’s ever been. I certainly did not feel it 10/15 years ago. I see SO many racist comments on social media. Was not the case previously.

Im just interested in having a discussion why this could possibly be the case? People are definitely more woke now than they have ever been.

Is it the social media sites themselves? Less moderation? More political influencers?
More media attention?
People looking for an excuse to blame the economic decline (pandemic, brexit, col etc)?

Just curious what people’s thoughts are?

I think it's a lot to do with how people are less well off these days (14 years of tory rule!) and looking for an easy target to blame - as politicians cause it but misdirect the causes and blame onto immigrants.

Were immigrants ever seen as novel? After the war those who were invited to work here suffered terribly from racism. It isn't the case that everyone was fine with immigrants until very recently. Do you not remember No Blacks, No Irish, no dogs? There has been a historical fear and aversion of the 'other', with some types of immigrants being particularly viewed as a danger/threat.

Well yes, they wouldn't have been common before.

I agree with you though, I don't think any country is really pro immigration.

I’ve heard similar. I heard a Muslim man say on a podcast that they have a saying in his country “if you want to work and make a business go to the US, if you want to live for free and live easy go to the UK”…

We are total White Saviour mugs. It’s embarrassing.

Edit to say he was criticising it, not agreeing with it.

Unconvinced that the UK is gaining much from importing 750,000 people a year, so I am considering exercising my economic freedom to relocate via a non-lucrative visa programme (ie, buying an alternate citizenship). Score another two notches on dollar millionaire emigrant tally leaving the UK.

Where are you going to go that doesn't have immigration? Hungary?

Trump's second election is definitely a factor, there was a similar swing after Brexit and his first term.

When the bigots get a 'win' they have a brief window to influence the discussion.

Edit: when I say 'bigot' I mean those who are directly unpleasant to immigrants, not those who have concerns about immigration.

@Adamante - but there will be a number who do agree. Are these the kind of people we want in the UK? My view is not.

No, I can't beat it, so I am joining the trend. I have no animosity to migration per se, but I don't think the host population should be expected to subsidise migrants. Wherever we wind up, we shall be contributing to tax revenue.

The Belgians have just appointed a right of centre government btw.

See UnHerd Newsroom for the full story.

I do think that this debate lacks nuance on both sides, and that's because the middle ground have been scared off discussing the issue.

We need to stop the name calling and let people talk about this issue fairly.

I think its a combination of overpopulation and the sheer numbers of immigration: and an underlying realisation that we are losing rights as citizens. Citizenship no longer really exists, nations no longer really exist, in a time when we can have high percentages of foreigners moving here compared to those already here. We cannot keep an identity when those coming in arrive in numbers too huge to even think about a need to integrate.

Concerns about social cohesion are real, because the need for social cohesion in a society is real. Concern about losing rights is real, because the need for people to have rights is real. Concern about overpopulation is real, because everyone needs resources to live and there are decreasing amounts of those.

The real question is why people think mass immigration into a finite space is a good idea. Some people refuse to listen to the very real issues around it and caused by it. I'd guess the op is one of those by the very need to ask the question.

As an example of the rights we are losing, you might want to consider this related thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5267503-aibu-to-be-furious-that-there-are-no-jobs-for-young-doctors

We are losing the rights to train into a job and then work that job . Yet our society is based upon having a job. We need to have jobs to survive. Most of us have no other choice, that choice was removed from us at the latest in 2000 when housing and land prices became utterly disconnected from work, and at the same time, the idea of having a safety net for those unable to work came under serious attack.

I used the phrase 'we need this to survive' deliberately, because if we do not retain the right to make a living in the only way we are allowed to -0 if all other options are taken away - then it is a question of survival. Perhaps those of us who do not come from wealth and the cushion of family support see this a lot more clearly, because we have no other way to survive.

Opposition to immigration is no longer limited to the irrational 'fear of other' as some posters suggest. It is rational. We are being pushed into fear of survival. I really am trying to make this as clear as I can.

Same here, we last looked into it at the time of Brexit and Portugal was a good option for a golden visa. (Ironic really, since DH’s parents invested all their savings here to secure the right to live in the UK). Not sure whether Portugal is still a good option. DH could work anywhere and I’m 80-90% certain we will head to the US at some point and then possibly retire to the Gulf and/or any parts of mainland Europe that are still inhabitable by then.

Portugal is on my list...

I note Wes Streeting and his comments today re whiteness. The UK is getting this wrong, he's right to point it out. And we don't need people who talk about "anti whiteness" in the NHS either.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/04/nhs-diversity-dei-practices-hindered-misguided-approaches-wes-streeting

The problem is ethno nationalists jump on quite a few traditional, conservative and even old centrist bandwagons. They’ll post things like you’ll never be British to someone like me commenting on a YouTube video and then on the other hand say oh it’s nothing personal. Well attacking people is personal so I do think there are some real racists out there. And it’s all born from resentment and envy. It’s simply too late to deport based on skin colour and religion. We need practical solutions not racism.

This I post based on a few quotes in this thread. Sorry if it sounds random!

I'm watched the programme about immigration on C4 last night & it showed a refugee camp in Somalia. It was really sad to see & the woman they interviewed said almost all women at the camp had been raped or abused in some way sexually. All had FGM.

Fewer women make it to the UK from Somalia & so essentially we are allowing men into the country who aren't treating their own women nicely. Do we really want the men from these camps coming over to the UK?

I honestly think people would be more supportive of people arriving and being helped if it were women, children & older people.

I don't think many communities want large groups of undocumented males age 20-30 roaming around the area. Is it racist to say I wouldn't want my teenage daughter walking alone past a group like that?

Crikey. The tide really has turned.

I think this all depends strongly on;

A) remaining in the ECHR
B) who is the next government

If A) is not available then there is very little to stop deportation full stop. A motivated government could make the immigration system and criminal deportations much harder. There are a lot of human rights guarantees operating.

Frankly Labour will never remove them. I do wonder if some other government would.

I agree @bombastix - the problem is that if Labour are as ineffective on this issue as the Tories were in government, it’s a shoe-in for Reform at the next GE.

There are many pitfalls. For example we have the potential UK India trade deal. India can out compete our own professional classes in sheer numbers in a heartbeat if migration is not managed.

I am not sure the middle class in this country are ready for this kind of competition. It will strongly affect the chances of their own children.

That's one thing alone that would need managing.

The next government we have wlll be right wing; Labour or whoever. It just depends on how far they go

www.<a class="break-all" href="http://www.mumsnet.com/i/netiquettetheguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/04/group-of-labour-mps-urge-no-10-to-be-tougher-on-migration-to-fend-off-threat-from-reform" target="_blank">www.mumsnet.com/i/netiquettetheguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/04/group-of-labour-mps-urge-no-10-to-be-tougher-on-migration-to-fend-off-threat-from-reform

Reform are clearly getting the Government rattled.

I don't know why I can't paste the link but it's the Guardian, so no paywall. Article has not long been up on the website.

I have thought this for a while. The current system isn't a good one

And then I hear reports from Sudan where mothers do unbearable things to try and protect their dds

And if we had a controlled humanitarian programme instead of trafficking we could help say 30k (whatever number the electorate want) from situations like that instead