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

I can relate to your Malaysian friend’s situation. Like her, I would lose my Japanese passport if I were to obtain British citizenship. I've met many long-term British and American residents in Japan who feel similarly; they are well-settled but wish to retain their nationalities.
Some people seem to think that obtaining citizenship and giving up one's native nationality is an easy choice, but that’s not the case for everyone. I feel frustrated with the government's attitude towards foreign residents. It seems unfair to blame us for the immigration challenges that have arisen, especially when we have come here legitimately and contributed positively to society.
I’ve been married to my British husband for over 30 years, paid National Insurance for more than 25 years, and have been a taxpayer throughout my working life without ever claiming benefits. Yet, it feels like the UK government is punishing us for circumstances beyond our control. If I am forced to leave in the future due to new legislation, I will certainly demand refunds for all my years of contributions and encourage others in similar situations to do the same.

National insurance number can be kept even if work visa expired, and overall it’s very easy to get one. It isn’t issued on any “document”, it’s just a letter. So if you have a document with A number and A photo it becomes .., a national ID! 🤣
digital is just more convenient form of an ID nowadays. And cheaper to issue.
whats your problem with it?
worried you won’t be able to underpay the taxes or something like that? 🤣

Where?

How do you suppose they would they expose the scale of this? What information do you think Reform will have that no other government has had?

You’re perfectly safe. Literally nobody is going to want to deport somebody with a great work history and excellent tax paying record, whose other nationality is that of a country we admire and get on well with.

Oh, there goes that British superiority- you consider yourself so much better than the Saufis or the Sudanese, all the while gearing up for the mass deportation of previously legal and peaceful immigrants?

I have lived for a few years each in two countries much criticised by the media here - Russia and China. I distinctly recall so many articles particularly about China and how inhumane and contemptuous of human life they are. The irony. I only speak of my own experience: I never personally encountered any anti-immigrant prejudice in either country (in Russia, once they realised I wasn't American, they visibly relaxed; generally they thought I was French though as that is apparently how my Russian sounded).

Whereas here in the UK have been told I came here to use the NHS (that I pay for twice, through Immigrant NHS Surcharge and NI on my wages), to claim benefits I am not entitled to, to get citizenship (that I would never apply for as it might endanger my own birth citizenship), in short to do anything other than work and raise my half-English kids with my English husband. And now I have the fun of hearing my ILR which took many years and many thousands of pounds to each may be rescinded according to your latest anti-immigrant political whim.

I have had to listen to tirades about illegal immigrants, about boat people raping and pillaging the southern shores, about mail order brides from Ukraine, about the Polish and Romanians who undercut locals and don't pay tax, about Muslims and their habits, about Africans and the way they bring their prejudices with them, and the whites from the colonies who come here to work and get jobs over the locals then fuck off home, and how we all need to be deported.

I also live in a place where people are routinely dumped once they have had asylum applications approved and a short move-on period has passed. Literally dumped like so much human detritus, with no housing, no support, no nothing. An emaciated man apparently from the subcontinent froze to death in the park beside my house last winter and AFAIK he was never identified. The general local reaction from my fellow dog walkers? "Good."

Normanton, Derbyshire

You're not unwanted in the UK by the majority of British people and I'm so sorry that a minority of ignorant thugs have made you feel this way.

As a British born citizen, it breaks my heart to see Reform demonising people from other cultures living here. Their latest plans must feel like a kick in the teeth for everyone who has settled and helped build our communities and contributed to our society and services. I would be very nervous in your position, too. Not least of all because of what an unfriendly and unBritish place this country is becoming. If Reform manages to get in, I would be seriously thinking about leaving, too, I’m sure.
I’m so sorry this is happening, and pray that the electorate moves away from Reform soon.

That used to be the idea behind America...

Just a 'dream' though, as we get to see...

I have had to listen to tirades about illegal immigrants, about boat people raping and pillaging the southern shores

Small boat ‘asylum seekers’ have indeed committed numerous very serious sexual offences against women here.

Why is this such an uncomfortable fact for so many?

First of all, don't judge me by your own standards. I've never dodged taxes. I'm just a normal British mother, that can clearly see the dark nature of what labour are trying to do. Why can't they deport illegals without a digital id, you've conveniently swerved this. I don't want to live in a communist Fabian run country. There's a reason over a million people have signed that petition in a matter of what, 3 days? I'm yet to meet someone that thinks this is a good idea

Why should legal people require a digital id to work? We will then have national insurance, birth certificates and digital id. You're essentially giving the government a hell of a lot of power, they can ruin your life in the blink of an eye. They already want access to your bank account.

It's different from what we have and you know it, and why it's being done

That's all you took from my post. Of course it was.

Well you wrote it like it’s an urban myth, when it’s a sad reality for many women who have been deprioritised in favour of violent men from misogynistic countries who should have no right to be here.

Please don't pretend you give a fuck about women, who will be the main victims of the planned changes to ILR.

My English teenage daughter could have her mother deported. I'm sure you'd be up in arms about it, yes?*

*Except she won't because we are all emigrating permanently later this autumn as a family, fear ye not. -3 Brits and the -1 gasp foreign wife/mother. -4 to your net migration figures so you will no doubt be thrilled. 👏

Of course I give a fuck about women. I have a daughter. Do I want her growing up in a country with a rapidly increasing population of men from terrifyingly misogynistic countries?

Do you think these men magically leave their misogyny at the border? If these men are not oppressing the women in their home countries then who bloody is?

Why would you be deported? Have you been claiming benefits ever since arriving? Have you committed a crime? You can clearly speak excellent English, so that’s not an issue.

Genuine question, why would her mother be deported? Is she not married to a British citizen? Does she not meet the threshold income reform are proposing?Just because someone has a child born here, I don't think they should be granted the ability to live here indefinitely if not born here. Sorry. But reform have tough choices ahead because the country can't continue on like this

Deporting parents is bound to help. More single parents and children in poverty is just what we need. Wonderful idea.

Pretty sure you'll be proved wrong, thankfully.

Are you saying this is a minor issue? Girls being raped by illegals is a major one, they are making a very valid point

Farage will be perfectly happy to see the NHS collapse, it's his aim.

No-one's deporting you if your child is British, relax.

😬

You sure? Reform haven't suggested that being a parent will be taken into account have they?