Are all of us foreigners just going to be told to pack up and leave if Reform win?

[Onegingerhead]

I might be totally unreasonable here (or not), but please hear me out.
(Bloody) foreigner here — I’ve lived in the UK since 2001. Built my whole life here: house, husband, DC, the lot. Worked the whole time in a field that requires the highest level of qualification.
I’m getting increasingly worried about the talk of Reform winning in 2029. Some even say it could be sooner if Labour are pushed into early elections. This week (as we all heard) our beloved Reform suggested rescinding ILR or even settled status from Europeans. God knows what else they’ll come up with, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they went after naturalised Brits next and started revoking citizenship, just to please the voters.
I know a lot of foreign-born women — some married to born-and-bred Brits, some to other Europeans (not always from the same country), some to men from overseas. All sorts of combinations.
So what do you think lies ahead for us? Will we be politely asked to leave, or will things just get so hostile that we’re pushed out anyway? And how likely is it that people who aren’t very white, or who have an accent, will face more discrimination in work?
I’m meeting my foreign friends tonight and we’ll be talking about it. For most of us, moving now would be incredibly difficult. We’re late 30s to early 50s, and starting over in a new country isn’t exactly easy. Some of us are married to men from different countries entirely, and we don’t even speak each other’s languages well enough to get proper jobs there.

AIBU and should think we will actually be allowed to stay?
AINBU sorry but you’d better start planning your move now

what's wrong with being working class ? (Glaswegian, living in SE England, degree educated and working class.)

Do you remember when there was so much hostility over Brexit that a ton of valuable people left. I knew recruiters who were tearing their hair out. I think it will happen again.

Where do they say it's "temporary"? And in order for the Withdrawal Agreement to be renegotiated, the EU would have to be prepared to engage with Reform in that negotiation, but I'm sure they wouldn't. Farage is full of hot air.

Nigel Farage’s claim that Reform UK will save £234 billion by banning foreigners from claiming benefits is facing mounting scrutiny, after it emerged that there would be a temporary carve-out for EU citizens.”

Reform claim they will renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement. The EU says otherwise.

Nigel Farage plan to save £234bn from migrant benefit cuts ‘falling apart’

https://www.thetimes.com/article/6cb1fb2a-f4ef-4257-8e5a-a88fe793b96b?shareToken=737a92bab77975a939c0dd17493c4b99

Even worse! Many EU nationals will still probably still feel the need to pay it rightly or wrongly for peace of mind.
Nope. If the worst happens and Re**m get in ( and people need to stop talking like it’s already happened it’s really not inevitable) my husband will pack up and go “home” and I’ll go with him.
What that would be like I don’t know, as he’s not lived there since about 19, but we won’t stay. He is so angry and proud he said he’s not grovelling for citizenship.
Bit shit for the care home he runs so brilliantly after a string of failed managers, but oh well. The olds will be ok, right? Plenty of people desperate to help them..
I wonder if the Neanderthals hanging their flags realise their benefits will only last 4 months after their hero slithers into office? Could get very ugly very quickly.

Naturalised Brit here - born and bred in a wealthy European (EU) country.
Moved to London in early 20s and worked, studied, married here. Own a house (mortgage) and my state and private pension contributions are all in the UK not my country of birth. I am in my very late 40ss now and don't expect to be a 60K+ earner by the time Farage might become PM. Youngest dc will be nearly done with their schooling and maybe DH and I will move to another European country but I'm not sure I feel resilient enough to start over when our lives and children's lives are here.

What we all should do? Take the threat of Farage and Reform very seriously.
Don't underestimate the influencing campaigns they are running, they are very successful. DOn't visit the Daily Mail, even though some active are entering at times, they are very happy to stir up hatred against foreigners and did so during the Brexit referendum.

Join the Labour Party or Lib Dems, or perhaps the Greens (if you must 😜) donate money to a party you find palatable and help them campaign in local elections. Counter racist xenophobic bullshit online, every time.

Stand up and say something when people around you (colleagues, family, friends, school mum on the school run etc etc) casually engage in hateful rhetoric.

We really do have to fight this. My dc will be old enough to vote and I am encouraging them to join a political party.

The same nationalism as here can be found in other European countries, including the country of my birth. Rich, white European huddled together talking about the immigration problem. They've been brainwashed and now feel emboldened.

It's quite clear that this narrative has been stoked. It's not by coincidence.

Meh. Not worried at all.

I'm an EU-arrival, from one of the 'Swan-eating' countries. Yep, the dreaded Eastern European.

I came to the UK to study, did so, created my business afterwards, purchased a place to live. Haven't received any benefits, didn't use the NHS (because it's shit, went back for treatment to my country), paid the appropriate taxes, didn't break the law, paid my student loan back.

In other words, I didn't do anything spectacular here, but neither do I feel somehow specifically 'grateful' to UK. For what? I paid for my education, paid for my housing, created my place of work, supported myself and paid the taxes. So I'm sick to the back teeth with the narrative about living in the UK being 'such a PRIVILEGE', we should be so grateful, strive to become 'British' and so on. Except even if I would apply to become a citizen (which I won't), no one would consider me British, not really. I'd always be an immigrant (not an ex-pat, seems like only true-blood Brits can be those).

Well fuck that. I'm not British, never wanted to be, don't want to be, and won't become one. I can afford it and could do it, but it sticks in my craw I'm supposed to grovel and be so immensely grateful for such a massive 'privilege'. I much prefer my actual nationality, tbh.

To tell you the blunt truth, UK is nothing special, nothing fantastic and nothing so great. It's a normal enough country, ups and downs, there are worse, there are better, but it's certainly not any sort of paradise Europeans should salivate and demean themselves over.

I considered leaving even before this Farage shitshow. The living standard is low, you get far more for your money elsewhere, far superior housing, much better food, better service, better weather, cleaner streets, less crime, maintained cities. And I won't even start about healthcare. So I guess there's not much point in staying. I'll just sell up and go, voluntarily.

It was fun while it lasted. Despite everything, Brits (well, most of them) are cool people. Best of luck, if Farage gets in - you will definitely need it.

I'm not saying there's no issue - none of us knows what the future holds (even the Labour government is seriously considering extending the residence requirement for ILR from 5 to 10 years). And you've repeated the same argument multiple times so I don't have any problem posting the same thing twice - I just hoped you'd read it.
So, are you saying you've arrived in the UK post-Brexit and do not have settled status? (In which case, I would agree, you could very well have reason to be worried if Reform were to be elected in 2029.)
If, however, you are an EU National and have settled status in the UK (and hence ILR) your concerns should be less because the EU Social Security Coordination Regulations, which gave you the right to access welfare in the UK while the UK was a member of the EU (and during the transition period) is covered by the Withdrawal Agreement and preserves this right (although I can't find anything specific wrt the UK state pension, but more of that later).
I'm not hung up on one paragraph from the BBC, but I consider them to be a reliable source and their article was clear (or so I thought) if you'd read it. They report, over several paragraphs, what Reform is proposing (threatening) and then state: "Reform said the changes would not apply to EU nationals whose settled status is protected under the European Union Withdrawal Agreement - and who make up the majority of benefit claimants by people with ILR. But EU nationals not benefiting from the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement will be subject to the new system." This really couldn't be clearer in the context of the article and I don't know why you're disputing its message, but now have a look at The Times' reports of Farage's posturing:
"However, Reform clarified on Monday that there would be an initial exemption for 4.2 million EU citizens, raising questions about the true size of welfare savings — given many overseas claimants have “settled status”. The policy would initially be limited to 431,000 non-EU migrants who have indefinite leave to remain in the UK." and then goes on:
"Reform plans to negotiate with Brussels to prevent EU citizens with settled status from claiming benefits if it wins the next general election. But European sources dismissed any prospect of downgrading the status of EU nationals who are resident in Britain, and protected by the legally binding post-Brexit treaty.
'It takes two to tango in a treaty negotiation, why would we agree to reopen this very sensitive Brexit legacy to make EU nationals worse off than they are now,' one European diplomat said. 'It would not happen and if a UK government stripped people of their rights under the withdrawal treaty there would be huge consequences. It would breach all the undertakings made by Britain since the referendum and would crash relations.'
Well, Reform can "plan" to negotiate with Brussels all it likes, but it's clear Brussels doesn't intend to negotiate with a Reform government to the disadvantage of EU nationals living here, and nor should they.
Finally, regarding the UK state pension, there are no guarantees of that in the future even for British nationals. You just have to look at what happened to the WASPI women to know that any government will change the rules at any time if it suits them, and I'm personally fearful for future generations that they will see any state pension provision at all because it will simply be economically unviable (and I believe the initiation of workplace pension auto-enrolment in 2012 was the clearest indicator that government expects everyone to have alternative pension savings).
I'm saddened and appalled by the rise of Reform (not least because the people who vote for them will suffer most from their actions, but like the MAGA cult in the US they won't realise until it's too late). Just like Trump and his circus of clowns, I think Farage, Tice et al are only in it to enrich themselves and don't give a damn about ordinary people or the country. I'm particularly sad that the welcoming, tolerant Britain I grew up in is starting to look very ugly indeed with Reform's lies and incitement to hatred, and all I and others like me can do is fight back with peaceful protest in the streets and at the ballot box - and just hope to God that that's enough.

One in, one out.

You're a Brit pretending to be an immigrant... "SwanEater"

Weird.....

Btw. All of the videos I've seen on social media show middle eastern looking folks with the swans/birds
.. not Europeans

Tbh, you could flip this. Being in certain parts of Scotland with an English accent can be very intimidating.

I agree with everything you've written with the exception of it being the "rich white Europeans" talking about immigration. In the UK it's the poor, disaffected white population who are emboldened, led by rich, cynical characters like Farage and Tommy Ten Names, to blame all their woes on "the immigrants" - it's blatant and despicable manipulation of people who don't see it for what it is or how they're being used by these hateful, self-serving individuals.

Not quite sure why you’re still here if you have better alternatives? Sounds like you despise the UK, in which case surely it would be better to up sticks and move to one of the other great countries you’ve got your eye on….

Yes, "temporary" until a Reform government has negotiated a new deal with Brussels - except Brussels has made it clear they won't be coming to the negotiating table (and nor should they).

That’s the mistake many of you are making. You see the very vocal protestors following Tommy Robinson around the streets draped in flags, who generally act and look uneducated and poor, and so assume that this is the demographic attracted to Farage and anti immigration sentiment. But there are many people behind closed doors who don’t go on these marches, who don’t drape flags on lamp posts, and are just quietly watching without feeling the need to publicly express their thoughts. You probably brush past a Reform supporter on a trip to Waitrose, or sit next to a well dressed well spoken person on the train who will vote for Nigel Farage at the next election. I dont get why some people aren’t intelligent enough to acknowledge the fact that many people keep their voting intentions private. That’s always been the case in my experience.

Or all the racist people could and make her life easier?

It's not that hard to just move is it? They've had years to go somewhere else.

But the poster isn’t complaining about racism, but complaining about the country in general. I get it’s not great at the moment with the cost of living and NHS etc, and it seems the poster has other options, so I was pointing out that if I was so unhappy and hated living here so much, but I was in the fortunate position of having other choices, I would be gone.

Yup, and all the Farage-supporting dullards who think they can't get timely healthcare because of "the immigrants" will get the shock of their lives when they're confronted with the prospect of paying for private healthcare via insurance they can't afford or from savings they don't have. Only then will they realise the self-inflicted injury they've perpetrated. There's just no accounting for stupid. 🙄

Don't you have a British passport then? Family member of mine ( from.a non European country) sent through the naturalization process ( in the 80s) and holds a British passport.

They won’t win

Totally agree.
👏👏👏

So you never complain?

I don't think many eu countries prevent dual citizenship. A friend of mine has lived in France for many years. After Brexit he applied for French citizenship. Still has a UK passport though

I'll be amazed if this Labour govt was in power for another four months, let alone four years!