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

Of course people who aren’t British by birth are less likely to approve of Reform as Reform literally exist to prioritise those British at birth over those who are not. Which shouldn’t be remotely controversial. I would love to move to Australia or Canada but due to health problems, 2 small children and the fact I’m not in a desired workforce, I have no hope. I respect their decision to prioritise their own citizens over me. Why wouldn’t they?

If you're here illegally then, yes, you should be deported.

But that isn't what they said. They said they have never lived anywhere where human life is valued so cheaply.
People are allowed to draw from their own experiences, we don't need to dismiss everything because somewhere else is worse. That's a recipe for disaster.

I'm not "far left" either.

Where has that poster lived out of interest? If they say just here and the Netherlands for example that’s hardly a meaningful comparison is it?

Boris Johnson never hid that he intended to increase levels of migration from outside the EU.
Brexit knocked 4-6% off GDP. In order to balance the books (as it were) higher levels of immigration were necessary to boost GDP.

Which makes it all the more frustrating now that many of the same people who voted for him are complaining about high levels.

Why does it matter where they have lived?

In the U.K.? Where else have you lived?

There is a social safety net here so I would say life is valued more here. Sudan has it's own billionaires but they still let the poor starve in huts with no plumbing or education. British people don't do that. We take care of our poor.

Also, FGM is the norm in Sudan with 86.6% percent of women aged 15–49 in Sudan reported living with FGM. It's considered a positive thing over there for women to have their clitoris cut out and it's not just the men who want that. Women want it done on themselves, women do it to other women, women do it to children. Here's a link: www.unicef.org/sudan/media/13281/file/FGM Factsheet in Sudan_Dec 2023.pdf

I agree, I'm in a similar boat I would love to emigrate. My partner lost his job because of my health issues, that was our ticket out of here. I worry for my kids if this country doesn't start to improve. We would go somewhere legally where we speak the language and fit in with the culture too. I'm hopeful reform will turn things around, and we can find happiness here and a better future for our sons.

We already have national insurance numbers, why not just put a photo on this? Why do we need a digital id? We have birth certificates. A digital id it's insidious.

Why can't labour deport people without introducing a digital ID? They plan to introduce this, they are saying they will crackdown on illegal immigration we know this is a lie. There is nothing stopping them doing this now.

Yet posters will look you in the eye (virtually of course!) and say this is a barbaric country with no respect for human life.. it’s a joke, it really is.

Because they’re using those other places to make the point we don’t value human life here. So those alternative countries are highly relevant.

I hate Reform. I was born here.

The point is that they are not here illegally. They have been here legally for years.

Reform wants to introduce legislation with retrospective effect.

No they didn't. You did.
Everything is relative. And I'm not sure better than Sudan is a really an acceptable goal.

But ILR isn’t an iron clad guarantee of lifelong entitlement to residency is it? It can already be revoked for a variety of reasons.

I was thinking bo way it would happen then remembered the Windrush Scandal. Idk...I hope not. Theres nothing wrong with moving ti a new country legally. People pay alot of money to do so.

I've lived in a part of the UK where the majority of people are not white British and in that particular place there was horrendous crime, low social cohesion (think residential window bars, ATM's which dispense £5 notes, drugged up people passed out in the road, fly tipping everywhere, people burning mattresses in their back gardens, people openly prostituting themselves on one street corner and so on). The local primary school boasted 17 different languages spoken in one class. None of the children learned anything academic

Fair enough. Doesn't change the fact that a lot of people hate them for self serving reasons. They know they will be deported or have family that will be. It's human nature to dislike something that affects you negatively

Mass immigration is affecting British people negatively, and Reform acknowledge this. They get my vote and the vote of a lot of genuinely concerned British people. I'm waiting for someone to accuse me of being a racist bigot again- I'd like them to explain their logic rather than label or mock those of us that vote reform. Other countries prioritise their own people - as should we

You don't become 'legal' because you've been here for many years. If you originally came to the uk illegally, then you are still illegal!

It's like Brexit. Everyone claimed to hate Brexit voters but they can't all hate Brexit voters or there wouldn't have been a Brexit.

Introducing legislation that has retrospective effect is highly unusual.
Introducing legislation with retrospective effect that will impact 100s of thousands of people even more so.

I knew someone who came illegally and later became legal (but by pretending her aunt was her mother on the paperwork).

I’m actually worried about Reform getting in because I think they will expose the true scale of piss taking when it comes to things like this. I think people will be staggered to hear how many people born abroad have contributed so little to our society yet squeezed so much out of it in return, sometimes on false premises. So far there has been very little meaningful data collection and they’ve kept a lid on it, but the tide will turn. I think everyone is in for a bit of a shock. I hope I’m proved wrong, I really do.