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

For me it's mostly the implication that English people are racist by dint of being English, that they are subhuman and they are entitled to nothing despite working full time and paying into the system. Why bother propping up a system run by people who hate you? Why vote for people who hate you? Heck, it's even become a huge gamble to work nowadays when the state helps itself to half your earnings.

The rules were changed about 25 years ago to force people into provided housing. The plan was to make it 'unattractive ' to come to the UK.

Prior to that asylum seekers could accept housing or choose to.live with family/friends - which meant they could disperse and start to integrate.

After 6 months, if their claim hadn't been decided (which it should have been) they could apply to work, and then provide for themselves (and again, integrate).

The government stopped that as it thought that made the UK 'too attractive '. Now some sections of the media are saying that putting asylum seekers up.in hotels is 'encouraging' them, and they are 'congregating'.

Provide basic support (enough for food and clothing) to those claiming asylum and staying with family. Process claims within 6 months, with a good level of assessment so few decisions get overturned on appeal. For those claims not decided within 6 months, allow them to apply for permission to work and support themselves. And again, begin to.integrate.

And how many staff at your local A&E are immigrants?

I would guess a large percentage, if it is anything like our local hospital.

Social housing was decimated by right to buy under Thatcher. Councils can't invest in housing because their investment can be used by their tenants for a quick buck.

That's another thing, certain communities don't want to integrate with everyone, and that also adds to tension.

At the moment they are prevented from integrating, as well as supporting themselves, while their cases disappear into the backlog.

If cases are not resolved within 6 months, allow people to work, and find their own housing until their cases are finalised.

@Owlcat42 that sums it up well - unfortunately a combination of Brexit/covid /world instability has caused turmoil generally - not just in the UK of course but I think it’s noticeable here because we have a perfect storm of factors, including stupidly high house prices in many parts of the country plus lack of social housing, de industrialisation and decimation of manufacturing plus a first past the post political system that doesn’t encourage collaboration - this encourages opponents to knock down ‘anything’ a current gvt might be doing in the national good - regardless of it makes sense. it seems much easier for people and politicians to blame immigrants ( and it’s smaller group to blame) than blame a Brexit that clearly has no real advantages, or the fact that social housing was decimated or the governments over many years have had a can’t be arsed attitude towards stopping overstayers or black market working or cash in hand jobs or benefits fraud or tax fraud or the fact there’s an awful lot of idle buggers too out there who aren’t bothered about working if they can get by not doing so - - all of which getting a grip on will alienate some sections of the voting public - so much easier just to blame immigrants -