What is it that riles people up about immigration so much?

[Am99]

I’m really curious at why some people get so annoyed over immigrants. Sure, I’m all for LEGAL migration no matter where the immigrant comes from and I agree that migration should be controlled / monitored to ensure criminals aren’t entering without a solid work purpose. My maternal grandparents were from Jamaica and they worked so hard.

I’m always so happy to see any doctor / nurse in the NHS whether they’re Indian, African, Caribbean, English and I couldn’t ever imagine getting so upset and angry about their ethnicity. I also don’t understand why people get so angry about asylum seekers being temporarily housed in hotels whilst they await their decision

Why are people so annoyed about migrants being housed in hotels? How can they actually be affected by it? On the news it looks like they’re being accommodated at Holiday Inns, not exactly anywhere where the typical Brit would take a staycation. It’s pretty mundane and boring. It’s not The Ritz.

I work, pay my taxes but it doesn’t bother me in the slightest if my tax goes towards that because tax is inevitable and something we never see. It’s just so unavoidable so why complain? I guess it’s like my student loan. Equally, how come these people aren’t annoyed that our taxes can fund royal house renovations or their security etc… I don’t see people protesting outside Buckingham palace? Also what about council housing in the UK? I don’t see people protesting about the fact the council literally gives subsidised housing to brits because they can’t afford it? I’m not sure if the tax payers money go towards this (I might need to educate myself on it) but surely that’s a bigger burden on taxpayers money.

I understand the argument that a country might lose its ‘identity’ with mass immigration. I saw a video with someone saying Japan is Japan because it’s more enough wholly Japanese. India is India because it’s wholly Indian. I get it to some extent, maybe we aren’t typically white and British like we were 59 years ago; but it’s still not enough to convince me that immigration is negative because what would actually happen if we did take all of the ‘foreigners’ outside of the NHS, TFL, cleaners etc etc … I wonder if they’d be enough Brits to fill their spaces? This isn’t sarcastic, I’m curious if anyone knows the answer

@ThisCalmLimeZebra @Sandyshandy and @MeandT exactly. Dismissing people's issues and worries as them being stupid and racist/xenophobic is absolutely why this is blowing up like this...
People who don't have enough themselves are now not only losers but apparently racist/xenophobic idiots. That will totally make them listen🙄
Yes, some riding on this are simply racists, but many aren't.
And it's been brewing for decades.

I think the main thing for me is that so called Asylums Seekers are the.priority for Social Housing. How can this be justified?

I consider this to be an absolute disgrace when there are genuine, working, local people who have been on housing waiting lists for years. And cannot even get a sniff at getting a place.

Why do the Labour hate their own dcent people so much?

Tbf that started under tories iirc. I believe lots of these people who would now vote reform did try to show discontent with status quo by voting labour. Which isn't working for them either. Hence raisining popularity of Reform and like parties.
There is only so much a common folk can do when it comes to who is in power without resulting to defenestrations. So they protest and moan (quite rightfully tbh).
DH and I recently reminisced about 2010 salary vs buying power... We get why people are losing their cool...

Reading through this thread nearly every reason so far attributed to those who feel immigration is too high by those who don’t goes something like this:

They’re racist…
They don’t understand…
They’re hateful bigots…
They’re being mugged by the media…
They’re stupid racists…
They’re xenophobic…
But they don’t understand!

None of this does anything to convince anyone that their feelings about high levels of immigration are unfounded. I actually suspect it achieves the opposite. It is so divisive and performative. It risks undermining the meaning of important words. We already know from Brexit that this line of argument fails to change people’s minds so why do people still do it? Is it some kind of performative tantrum? The worrying thing is we are 4 years away from a potential Reform Government and if we are to avoid that fate the current political class need to do so much better. I’m not terribly optimistic.

I would also add that these people do need to consider the pygmalion effect as well.
Keep telling someone all the time they are racist idiot and what do you think happens...

This sort of comment is what I mean about the inability to have a proper discussion, we need to listen to each other and try to understand that our own experience doesn't always match others.
One side is not all right and the other side is not all wrong.
Name calling just reinforces entrenched opinions.

The file on 4 radio prog tonight about the inside of these hotels includes an interview with an Iranian woman whose doctors in Turkey told her only hope of treatment for her stage 4cancer was the U.K. and the nhs.

While I agree, a lot and I do mean a lot of people have already made up their minds about immigrants. When actual facts laid out that is odds as to what they hear from the likes of Farage or social media grifters it is ignored, sometimes even evokes aggressive responses. So to come to the conclusion that people are exactly that isn't too far off the mark?

Why do you only mention Labour?

I think there is a certain amount of fear of ‚others‘ be it culture, language, skin colour etc. ironically this is worse for people in areas where they don’t encounter much diversity. With the current world problems and financial difficulties, certain groups / politicians play into this. They know there will be many people feeling inherently uneasy about anyone coming into the country and use this to fire up more emotions, even hatred. Especially people already on benefits are scared they have to share what little money they get with foreigners ‚who don’t deserve it’. Reform tell a huge amount of lies all playing into this. ILR is not easy to obtain, you are only eligible after 5 years and have to support yourself beforehand. Whilst illegal immigration needs to be tackled it is now less than in 2022 when it was at its highest but of course then we did not have a Labour government to take the blame. Believe it or not, net immigration has increased (total figures including RU nationals) vastly since Brexit. Whilst we were in the EU anyone coming in illegally could be much more easily returned to the last safe country ie France. This is why the agreement Labour made with the French government is so important. There are many other problems unrelated to immigration that could be tackled by higher taxation of the most wealthy but as they are also the most powerful immigrants are way scapegoats and a good distraction.

I think that much depends on the area you live in.

Our local primary is full of immigrants, nice working people on the whole but not all. Our local hospital A&E is also full of immigrants using it instead of a GP appointment because, guess what, the local GPs are overwhelmed as our infrastructure has not been increased.

Old ladies on buses talk to me about their grandchildren being unable to find anywhere to live. The rest of the family live in social housing but this is no longer available as it is full. They're willing to rent privately but really can't afford to do this.
If you live in a middle class or gentrified area you don't see this side of it.

I think this is a good point. People go on about "the facts" as if that's all that matters. But the facts often don't reflect people's actual experiences and if the facts say something contrary to your experience you aren't really going to be terribly convinced by them. People are likely to trust their own experience over a government spreadsheet. Also it has become clear that government data can and does sometimes omit to record inconvenient truths.

Because op, OUR tax money, our hard earned wages, the money that moat of us could do with ourselves, are being used to house these people in these hotels. Whilst those that are British born, are being forced to sleep in the streets because there osnt any money for them

Exactly this. I am one of those people who in theory is insulated from the situations that are causing so much resentment right now. I don't feel immigrants are taking anything from me personally. I know and work with lots of nice, hardworking immigrants who make a positive contribution to society. But where I live, some of the downsides are becoming more apparent.

• The explosion of vape shops, barbers, nail bars, car washes etc. while other retail struggles
• House upon house being turned into HMOs
• The areas of the city where a lot of immigrants have settled having been turned into virtual slums, looking run down, rubbish everywhere, no pride taken in the neighbourhood at all
• The burden on local schools of dealing with associated challenges
• Cultural issues being imported - tensions between religions and ethnic groups which have even spilled over into local politics, certain communities keeping children out of school, issues the NHS has to deal with

And this at the same time as there is a shortage of housing, councils are running out of money, services have been cut, schools here aren't performing well, people feel their lives are getting worse and worse.

Yes this

also fly tipping

In my humble, I believe a lot of the negative sentiment stems from the fact that this charity is made obligatory. People want to help others in need, but only to the extent they choose to do so, and within the resources they have. Illegal migrants take away this freedom of choice. In a nutshell, as a nation we are forced to support the large number of people whom we did not invite.
Plus, the sheer number of people arriving daily is naturally intimidating (?) to the native population. Even without the factor of race in the mix (which, sadly, it is for many), it is the dilution of culture, language, social and economic resources....it is threatening.

Not everyone is racist because they don’t agree with everyone else’s opinion but our country is in a mess and we’re broke yet we keep helping others. Why it’s because this country is soft. I don’t care where people are from as long as there willing to work and pay their way. We will get to a stage where people from here will become homeless because they cannot afford to live but the people off boats get a cushy life without paying into our country and people like you feel sorry for them because there from another country but they are bleeding us dry. Racism isn’t the problem the free ride is.

Swan eating is apparently a factor

That was an interesting programme. It didn’t claim to offer a thorough overview or establish whether what was observed was typical or not. However, It revealed numerous reasons why people are getting irate. The spend on taxi’s to hospital appointments including the woman who could have walked but insisted on being driven. The complaining about food when it’s free. Complaining about queuing to see a GP when citizens wait 3 weeks for appointments. Causing dangerous situations in the building by disabling alarms. Adult siblings demanding separate rooms then complaining when they are not adjoining. Converting to Christianity to make a case for unsafe return to Muslim countries. Illegal working to supplement income. Provision of free mobiles. At a small scale, though annoying, none of this is an issue. I’m just not sure that this is small scale or sustainable though …

This is a depressing but accurate description

In my head it’s really simple. If you have 20 houses and needed 50 there is not enough room. Not enough money, infrastructure, food, or supplies. We are a sinking ship of ‘people’. Not about race religion etc. There is no fecking money or room. The people that actually work in this country are propping up the higher majority of people on benefits ‘or other’ and that weighing scale disparity is increasing.

Spot on

Growth of sectarianism in politics (we will see Islamic political parties over the next 2 years)
And if people think White people are the only people concerned about this try talking to Hindus, Sikhs, Syrian/Lebanese East African and Asian Christans about it. Not to mention special treatment for Islamophobia etc.

Yes my dh was speaking to someone whose dps had come in the 70s to the UK and he wasn’t happy with the situation

This