AIBU to think that racism is getting a lot worse of late.

[AliceMaforethought]

Just read this awful story in the Guardian. Awful and makes me feel so angry and so unsafe as a half Black woman.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/20/family-in-fear-after-tommy-robinson-shares-video-of-black-man-with-white-granddaughters

Yes I broadly agree with what you are saying

also I think some of them could pay for the classes or a translator

I think if we allowed asylum seekers to work, then they could certainly contribute towards language teaching.

Using interpreters is just kicking the can down the road. I think making language eteaching accessible and mandatory is so key to bedding immigrants in - and in addition, it would promote the safety of women and girls immeasurably, because women in abusive situations would be able to communicate effectively and thus be more likely to access support.

However, anything we do in this area is going to cost money. If you want people to settle well, you need to invest. Offsetting this by allowing people to work would help, but then the great British public would start screaming about how 'they're stealing our jobs!', never mind that these are likely to be the jobs Brits won't do.

I'm an immigrant, I'm fluent in 4 languages and I've 'stolen' a fair few british jobs in my time including my current one. And sensible ideas notwithstanding, I do feel that racists are having their day in the sun to a degree that is unacceptable.

Unfortunately women are often not allowed to access language classes by the male members of their family. The males can often speak reasonable English, and therefore decline any interpreter offered, and this results in the mum being excluded from decisions around their child's care. This seems to be a form of control. Childcare is offered, there are women only classes in various local locations, charities are trying to remove barriers, even offering a free minibus to go and collect to bring to the classes, but uptake among women in the borough I work in is very low.

It's encouraged by health professionals to help them navigate the nhs systems easier, one special school set up a language class after children dropped off (this was better attended but many admitted they had to lie to their husbands, and said they had to meet the teacher, or bus was delayed etc, and then when we visit there is this pretence they have to put up that they don't understand us) ,social workers encourage it so women aren't as vunerable.

@Bushmillsbabe that's definitely a problem, and it's going to be difficult to overcome. But with asylum seekers, you have a more or less 'captive' audience, so there are opportunities with that group. Even if the men don't like it.

I think if people want to come and live here and supposedly be part of the society then they need to tow the line.

are the dhs earning fantastic salaries so they can support their wives not learning English and being able to go out to work

What line should they be toeing?

Personally I'm less concerned about earnings and more about the safety and wellbeing of these women, but you do you.

I think asking someone who wants to live in the UK to adhere to its laws isn't a big deal - and refusing to allow your wife out to learn English (or do other stuff) is coercive control, which is illegal here. It is however a very difficult crime to prosecute.

I think that depends on who you talk to - for me it's basic legal stuff like not coercively controlling your wife.

And possibly also learning the fine art of English grammar, spelling and idiom - in addition to toeing the line, the elimination of the greengrocer's apostrophe should also be considered a priority.

Trying to fit in a bit more and assimilating with expectations of all parties learning the language and earning a salary, yes spello toe not tow

yes it can’t be nice having a dh who is abusive and controlling

Are you really saying you think the majority of Britain wants mass immigration ? I‘m sorry, but that’s absolute lunacy.

Why did they keep voting Tory?

I'm saying that, at the last election, the vast majority of the electorate chose not to vote for the party which very actively promotes itself as the party for people who are concerned about immigration.

You can read into that whatever you wish. The fact remains that, when presented with a virulently anti-immigration option, the vast majority of the electorate rejected it.

They kept saying they’d keep net immigration to tens of thousands. Do you genuinely believe the majority wanted/want mass immigration?

Well, if they believed the Tories on that, there's a word to describe them but we aren't allowed to use it.

The fact however remains that they didn't vote in a Reform government in 2024.

I'll be interested in what the Reform manifesto looks like in 2029 - and I hope that they will be challenged on it, because you can't run a country on 'deport all migrants and do fracking', which seems to be pretty much all they've got.

Migration went up from 250k under Blair to over 1m under the Tories and people kept voting for them. They got what they voted for.

That is true, I’m assuming you’re reading into that that the majority of the U.K. wants mass immigration? You are so far out of touch it’s unreal.

Nobody is reading that into it. What it means is that the electorate are not a 100% single issue bloc of voters. Even though Reform would love it if they were.

Are you really saying people voted Tory for mass immigration?

Who said they were? The fact remains that the majority of UK are not in favour of mass immigration, it’s utterly ludicrous to suggest otherwise.

I'm saying that people voted Tory despite immigration going through the roof. Therefore they can't have been fervently opposed to it.

Well, if they believed the Tories on that, there's a word to describe them but we aren't allowed to use it.

You’re allowed to use the word majority

But nobody has. You're just twisting it that way. What we're saying is that when set against all the other issues a voter considers when deciding how to cast their ballot, people consider a wide range of issues and will vote for the party that best promises to address those. And in 2024, that was not Reform, nor was it the Tories.

We are now 1 year and a bit into a 5 year Parliament, so let's see how things go. And meanwhile, it would be nice if we had a lot less of the sweeping statements about 'what immigrants are like', because yes - that's racism.

Haven’t we just been through this where they said they’d keep immigration in the tens of thousands.

Would you give me a straight answer please, do you really think the majority are in favour of mass immigration?

The only "fact" that remains is that the majority of the UK electorate simply didn't care enough about the issue of immigration to vote for the party that made it their no.1 issue at the last election.

I do understand that this information may be difficult for you to believe if you typically surround yourself with lots of rabid Reform supporters and you assume that everyone else is as racist as they are. But the fact remains that the electorate did not choose to prioritise the issue of immigration at the last General Election.

I do not believe that the level of immigration we have is sustainable. You have to wonder at people's intelligence if they continue to vote for a party doing the alter opposite of their election promises. Immigration wasn't in the 10s of thousands for 14 years.

Then again, people continued to vote for them after Brexit.