Does anyone have any actual personal experience of immigration being a problem?

[OrdinarySAHM]

The country is supposed to be deeply concerned about immigration but is there really a problem, or has the media or just people in general, whipped each other up into believing there is one?

DH says that I live in a privileged bubble and that is why I haven't felt any impact on my life from immigration. This may or may not be true, that is why I am asking.

Eg. My children haven't been refused a place at the school of my choice because of immigrants taking up the places. We haven't been in any waiting lists for anything because of immigrants being ahead of us in the queue. We haven't missed out on employment that has been given to immigrants. And I don't know anyone who has any personal experience of anything like this.

Do any of you have any personal experience of immigration impacting negatively on your lives?

riven, that's the problem with the UK. We're not intrsinsically sociable, welcoming people. Community just doesn't exist. I'd love for our area to have a community association that all the local residents participated in.

Rural communities in the Lincolnshire area would be a good example. Previously rather isolated, many of them are now hosting large numbers of migrant workers who are brought in to work in the fields and packhouses - some temporary, some permanent. In the past, migrant workers tended to settle in industrial towns.... Liverpool, Luton, Bradford, Birmingham... because that's where the jobs were.

Xenophobia is not new and fears about Britain being 'flooded with foreigners' go back centuries. People arriving from overseas - whether it was Jews in the 1900's or Jamaicans in the 1950's - got a very frosty reception and have had to work had to achieve acceptance.

Simply pointing out that it's not necessary for your own life to be worse in order to have a visceral (illogical) objection to strangers.

Only in one sense: round here fields are being ploughed up for new homes. It's not that the new homes are going to immigrants, necessarily, but they are contributing to the increase in population that means that beautiful countryside is lost--for good.

On the plus side, some Polish and Indian immigrants round here have sent their children to the village school, which is great: we needed extra children. I work with one of the INdian boys as a volunteer and he is delightful. A real asset.

That's racist discrimination veritythebrave and you should report the shop to the authorities. If you ran a shop with a sign saying 'no Poles' you'd expect to feel the full weight of the law.....

Highlander: np, hope you're having fun with the potty training!

I think that's a fair process to bring in, tbh if somebody had asked me if it happened I'd naturally assume that it did already, because medical practices and teachings differ by location so it's only logical for foreign doctors to undergo British tests first or be provided additional training before they start work.

Does anybody know if there is a system in place for foreign social workers? Just out of curiousity as I know that a large percentage of my local social workers are South African and I would assume that though the job is similar that there would be differences in laws and whatnot.

Verity: surely that's illegal and some form of discrimination?!

The shop is operating illegally and you should boycott their 'yummy looking food' on principle. Like the B&B that turned down the gay couple.... not acceptable. Hope the police or the Trading Standards people get them sorted out. Does nothing to improve community relations.

Most problems surrounding migration are about resources supplied by the state. Health, education etc.

But migration for economic reasons happens internally in the UK as well. Northerners coming to London as an example.

So resources need to have proper investment, instead of being relentlessly cut and underfunded on the back of right wing promises about a smaller state. (I include the Labour party on the right for clarity).

Because smaller states never apply to the security services, army, state power and the thousands of extra laws brought in by successive governments to control the population. Only to resources people actually want.

The debate on immigration is wholly false and much of it is underpinned by racism and the desire to apportion blame away from the state and corporate interests.

I'd go to the media on the shop issue. We had a shop in my home town in Scoptland that put up a sign saying 'Catholics Only'. The sign didn't stay up for long.

SweetGrapes, to answer your question earlier on, yes EU citizens can just come here and claim benefits. Also they can work in the UK and claim child benefit for however many children they have even those not living in the UK but who live back in their home country. I think (but don't know for sure) this is reciprocal, so British citizens could move to another EU state and claim benefits there.

I read that Barking and Dagenham is 85% white Uk and one of the least ethinically diverse boroughs in London.

So what is their excuse then?

And WHY does that BNP bloke insist on wearing those horrible tan suits ALL the time?

If it wsasn't for immigrants we wouldn't have our wonderful selection of Indain food and chinese food, along with others that are now becoming more common.

Well, my dh says there's a local firm which will only employ people who can speak Polish. He can't name the firm or tell me exactly where it is, so I think he's picked up some pub talk. Sometimes he's just a twit.

DH doesn't get as much work as he used to, but that's due to so many venues closing down - mainly because of the smoking ban and abysmal economic climate, but I don't think either has anything to do with immigrants.

I had a job holding a sign in the street but now I'm out of work - its all the poles taking away my job

Seriously - no I have not seen any negative things about immigration - only negative attitudes which I get really about. Especially regarding Asylum seekers - if most people heard about what they have been through I doubt they would deny them anything. You don't just up and leave your country, community, friends and family with very little belongings on a whim. People are being killed and tortured and some british want to send them back??!!!

sweetgrapes & renerusso, EU nationals can't just come here and claim benefits. It's not that straight forward.

"The rules are complicated and can be different for different groups and nationalities. Foreign nationals are not entitled to benefits when they are seeking work, unless they have already worked here and are temporarily unemployed. Citizens from the A8 countries for example, become entitled to benefits and housing if they are self-employed here, or if they have a job and register with the Workers Registration Scheme. Once they have been working lawfully for a year they no longer have to register when changing jobs and they become eligible for benefits when temporarily out of work as well as when working."

This is quoted from the site linked to earlier by a previous poster.

Bulgarians and Romanians have different restrictions on them.

Dare anyone say yes?

Thanks for the clarification tanmu82. Seems reasonable, you pay into the system before you can be a part of it.

ALySONPEACHES I have said yes (many times!) it does, and I have said, it effects poorer communities much more, how many MNs live in deprived council house slums? I don't and I bet most MNs don't either!

When I recently went back to the town I was born in I went to a sandwhich shop. I asked for a tuna mayo bagette, the shop girl didn't understand... another person had to help as 'she only speaks Polish'.

So now you can get a job in a shop without being able to speak English, and English people cannot get what they want in a shop without a crash course in Polish

well done crystal123.

I live on the edge of a council estate, its not deprived, thanks to labour. Its in an area where maggie closed all the pits and now the steelworks have laid everyone off. No one regards it as a "council estate" around here though its just another collection of streets that have been here since the 1930s. Many people have bought their homes, so its just about impossible to get a house on here. The school my children attend is in the middle of a "council estate" and is a very good school, I should know I did supply teaching there. The class sizes are small and the foundation unit is superb. The infant department is now being rebuilt to enlarge it. There is lots of unemployment though, and interestingly enough the BNP is active.

Riven, crystal 123 said "ALySONPEACHES I have said yes (many times!) it does, and I have said, it effects poorer communities much more, how many MNs live in deprived council house slums? I don't and I bet most MNs don't either!"

Not particularly making a point, just saying that some of us do live in areas of council housing and its not all grim deprived slums. The houses have been modernised, we have a good school, but lots and lots of people who feel they have no future. Its very different to living in an affluent middle class suburb, like the one I moved from last year, but I like it here.

Yes it has affected me.

I live in peterborough and I have people going through my bins, stealing from our garden, begging as you walk along,I have been spat at, THEY STOLE MY KITTEN AND WOULDNT GIVE HIM BACK UNTIL I PAID THEM!!!

Plus the police will not do anything because they do not want to add to the 'racial tension'

I don't want them to be victimised. I just want to live without all of the above going on.

pmsl at some of the comments on here which can essentially be condensed to 'I love immigrants - without them what would I do for a nanny/cleaner/hairdresser'

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