Are these people really British?

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In 1688, foreign strangers were arriving on British shores daily. The locals complained of despoilment of their environment. Londoners complained that French was everywhere, and not a word of English could be heard spoken! The French immigrants were denigrated either for being too poor, thus a drain on rate-paying parishioners, or too prosperous, at the expense of local merchants and business owners.

(Taken from Thou Savage Woman by Blessin Adams, great book!)

That sounds exactly like what I hear the media saying about immigrants now! So when the far right are making sure that Britain is for the British, shall they make sure we all trace our lineage back to the 1600s, and make sure no descendents of those awful French immigrants count as British?

Some people move because of being in a relationship with someone from another country, some people move because they are gay and want to live somewhere that is more accepted, some move for a different way of life

You should read some of the stuff written about the Irish immigrants in Liverpool/Glasgow in the late 1840s.

And a century late there were there Gordon riots largely triggered by the fear that Catholicism was incompatible with British values and a general suspicion Catholics were by their nature, drawn to authoritarian governments and would undermine the UK from within if given too much privilege.
I can't imagine anyone saying that about religions today.

I'm not sitting through all that!

They were 'Commonwealth citizens'. Not 'British citizens'.

You could alternate it with tales of what the English did to the Irish since whenever. Although given the obsession with the early modern period, start with Oliver Cromwell.

But as you don't know, that is not (a) the law and (b) not what Enoch said.

I had no truck with his views. However they are perfectly articulated (unlike this thread). Which is why they are open for debate.

E2A: More spelling

Fair enough. At least the middle one isn't financial gain. Still personal one, but I accept that one

How do they survive for 5 years with no benefits?
Foraging for food in the woods?

They eat swans and catz and dogz

The first one isn't necessarily for financial gain either

I agree.

You do sometimes hear of people heading off overseas for 'an adventure' or 'to see the world' but this is very much a first world privilege. And it's usually a youthful indulgence too.

The vast majority of people emigrate for pragmatic reasons. Usually to enjoy a material standard of living which would be unavailable to them in their home countries. This is why emigration is nearly always from poorer countries to richer countries. You don't hear of too many people setting off to build a new life in the Philippines or Nigeria.

It is. Couples always pick the better financially. Let's not play naive to that. Would be pretty weird to move to country where you will be financially less stable than in the other. Takes quite some counting though sometimes!

I love a good huguenot story.

I've recently traced my Aunt's. Looks like she was related to some pretty significant French pirates.

Looks like they were part of the 1688 movement.

Some of the most violent people from some of the most violent and dysfunctional countries in the world are entering our country en masse and we're supposed to compare them to the 17th Century French?!

Our government and others are complaining about disabled and young people not working. Look at the statistics for the lowest educated, highest unemployment, highest prison percentage in the UK in recent years.

Obviously the brainwashing is going well, judging by most of the responses here. Be careful what you wish for.

I have a family member who moved to a different country where they were less financially stable to marry. But you can take the view that all people are selfish and only out for financial gain, I just think that's sad

Of course I know that! Former imperial subjects gained the status of 'Commonwealth citizens'. They did have right to emigrate to Britain, but were not British citizens.

I couldn't give a fiddler's what Enoch Powell says. You brought him into the discussion, not me.

That is so interesting! Amazing you can trace it back so far. Unfortunately as most of my family are Jewish their records were destroyed so it's hard to go very far back

She has an unusual surname within the family. Always helps.

They work illegally in barber shops and nail bars where they're exploited by the bosses, probably.

Point is, people have always hated immigrants and thought in stereotypes. The English thought the French were dirty and brought the plague (while the French think it was the English that spread the plague over there)

I got citizenship a couple of years ago and deffo feel British instead of German. Been here two decades

If you have the right to live in a poorer country or a richer country, it makes obvious good sense to choose the richer one. I wouldn't call that 'selfish'. Just sensible. Which is why the vast majority of mixed nationality couples do just that, at least based on anecdotal evidence.

With so many undocumented, unknowable's being imported en mass to the country, I'll just leave this here from the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the UAE...

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DD2sV59P7Dh/

It doesn't matter. They're a net drain on our resources and are committing violent crimes. I don't live in the past, I live now.

I think it’s a very sensible premise myself. We’re all a big mixture on this small windswept island on the edge of the Atlantic. Bit of this, bit of that.