Why are people so against immigration?

This seems to be a massive problem for a significant minority of people. The right and far-right make a lot of hay out of this issue. Why’s is it such a problem?

Racism, fear of others, constant right wing propaganda, they are scapegoats

Others.  Always an easy target to strike fear into those “like us”.  It’s just tribalism but given we are at heart social animals we need to look after our tribe.

Just a scaled up version hoping to say we are one and they are not. So vote for us to stay like us.

It’s not immigration that’s the problem, it’s that immigrants are foreign. A whole load of Xenophobes voted for Brexit on the promise it would put a stop to it. It hasn’t.

I work with asylum seekers every day and 99% of the people are just wanting to start a new life, job etc.  Unfortunately we only seem to hear the negative press about the 1% from the usual rags that pass as “newspapers”.

Social media and misinformation being so rampant only fuel the fire with the hatred.

fatmountain
Free Member
This seems to be a massive problem for a significant minority of people. The right and far-right make a lot of hay out of this issue. Why’s is it such a problem?

Fear of the “unknown” and someone to blame for aspects of their life that haven’t gone how they planned.

Many is the night I’ve woken up terrified of the the coming day over the huge negative effects of immigration on my life.

Their lives aren’t what they want them to be, for whatever reason, so it’s a convenient group of people to blame.

They see pressure on local services – schools, doctors – and blame the immigrants rather than the lack of investment in services.

They’ve come from environments that don’t have much positive exposure to people from different cultures.

Fear of the unknown.

Lack of opportunities to travel to see other countries and people.

Lots of reasons.

I know of a number of people who genuinely believe that over the course of a few generations “they” will take over.

The key thing about that, is they do “believe” it.

They’re against it because that’s what they’ve been told to be.

Fear of the “unknown” and someone to blame for aspects of their life that haven’t gone how they planned.

Often stoked up for political reasons by unscrupulous politicians. Now seems a common part of the would be autocrats playbook.

Always slightly freaked me out when I meet people who are thoroughly supportive of the lovely people born elsewhere in the world that look after their relatives, serve them in restaurants, build their houses, run the companies they work for or operate on their gall bladders whilst still clinging on to the idea that the world would be a better place if immigrants in general were prevented from entering the UK.

Which begs the question, if the anti immigration parties were successful in preventing immigration, leaving aside the imminent collapse of higher education, the health service, food production, tourism etc. etc., who would they then seek to blame? Early evidence seems to suggest young people.

Actually I suspect that many of you are just taking the easy way out with your comments or are falling for the trendy propaganda. My objection?

Too many bloody people in the country. We are building on farmland, spending a fortune on roads etc. Screwing the nice places by over crowding. We are full!

I don’t care a stuff where the people come from all I want is there to be less coming in than go out and ideally they should be productive and hardworking to allow us to look after those we have. I know many an immigrant who I would rather have in the country than some of the lazy spongers, born and bred here,  I meet on a daily basis.

This view is not uncommon and is spread through the generations and “classes” for lack of a better word.

Of course the spiteful, hypocritical and selfish political voice of many of the STW members won’t accept another persons opinion.

Most people who are against immigration are not racist. Most immigrants do not want more immigration.

Why?

Where does it end? We have enough problems to deal with first.

Partly because immigration tends to affect specific areas a lot  more than others and if that is your family neighbourhood that can be difficult to deal with, one man’s vibrant multic cultural neighbourhood is another’s death knell of the historic culture. It can also put disporportionate pressure on local services. Immigration does have it’s issues.

However mostly racism and and an easy target to blame for their own lack of perceived success in life. Generally the problem is not immigration, its the fact we dont help people to settle and interact with existing communities.

Also worth remembering that to some people, if you’re skin colour is “wrong” it doesn’t matter how many generations they’re family have lived here, they are immigrants and always will be.

That’s the kind of mentality you are against in some and I don’t see it ever being overcome in people as radicalised as that.

Without immigrants we have a real issue with an aging population and not enough folk to work to provide for them.  Immigrants put more into the economy and take less out that the average citizen.  We are not that crowded a country.

Immigration soles problems not creates them

Yet, it’s that aging population that has us where we are… it is older people in the main that are motivated to vote for the promise of fewer immigrants. And our demographics mean that it is older people whose votes count more, not just because of their numbers, but because of the seats they live in.

It’s not all about economics, what about social cohesion?

@ratadog

100% agreement from me.

I think mattsccm explains the “practical” aspects of the concerns very well – whether the pressure on resources is due to the number of immigrants adding to “homegrown” pressure on resources or a complete failure of long term planning by successive governments is another matter.

That is the appeal of the political and press portrayal of immigration, not just the “they’re different/foreign” that is the knee jerk woke-erati opinion, but that “they” are taking “our” resources.

The fact that immigrants contribute more to the economy than they take out, fill jobs that native British people don’t want to do or are not trained to do are facts that don’t suit the narrative.

:popcorn:

Too many bloody people in the country. We are building on farmland, spending a fortune on roads etc. Screwing the nice places by over crowding. We are full!

i hear this rhetoric a lot round here, but the symptoms of being ‘full’ that people complain about like poor access to doctors, schools, shit busy roads,  are actually just a result of massive underfunding.

It’s not all about economics, what about social cohesion?

Whats that got to do with immigration?  Immigration makes us richer, richer countries with good social policies are happier.  Again immigration is not the issue.

The UK is a nation of immigrants.  Despite tracing my family back to the 1600s in the UK my genetics clearly show I am not an ancient briton.  I am descended from immigrants

Locally it’s a lack of housing that’s the main issue (thinking of immigration in its widest sense). That can also be seen as a lack of funding but there is also a desire not to see everywhere built over.

I wonder what direction this thread would take over on Pistonheads?

They’re against it because that’s what they’ve been told to be.

That’s the best answer imo.

If people are repeatedly told that “inflation” is a problem they will claim it is a problem, if people are repeatedly told that “the deficit” is a problem they will claim it is a problem, and so on.

ignorance.  pure and simple.

just imagine this country….now at this time. without immigration we would be completely fubar. well even more fubar than we are…. if you see whati mean.

Too many bloody people in the country. We are building on farmland, spending a fortune on roads etc. Screwing the nice places by over crowding. We are full!

I can see this might be what people might think they think. But why are these people not also equally vocal about reducing birth rates of those that already live here? It’s another perfectly valid cause of population growth.

Most immigrants do not want more immigration.

This is also oddly true. Two of the people in my social circle that are most vocally anti immigration (OK – it’s a skewed subset as I’m not big on being buddies with racists) are a first generation and a 2nd generation immigrant. I’ve always found it a bit weird.

Personally – when I hear what some of these people have been through to get here even if they are purely economic migrants, I normally think “Now that’s sounds like the sort of person with enough about them I’d like to have as a neighbour”.

Immigration soles problems not creates them

It does both and to suggest otherwise is no better than the people who just focus on the downsides. Generally immigration does have a net benefit to the UK but That’s not everybodies personal experience.

Whats that got to do with immigration?

Don’t be deliberately obtuse.

Is this discussion about legal or illegal immigration?

The UK is a nation of immigrants.

So are all nations outside Africa.

I don’t see myself as anti immigrant within the current political debate. I’m not racist or xenophobic. I’m close to the changing face of Britain and not unhappy with the changes

But

I’m also aware that my staggeringly high standards of living is dependent on control of our borders

So i think the question of whether one is anti or pro immigration is actually far more nuanced than the debate we have here

Quote

We are building on farmland

Quote

That’s where my house was built. Wasn’t yours?

Rabid lefties out in force, unable to comprehend another viewpoint or even look at the evidence.

Locally it’s a lack of housing that’s the main issue (thinking of immigration in its widest sense).

That’s an interesting comment as it immediately made me think of the housing issues for young people in Cornwall.

Cornwall, pro Brexit etc but it’s widely known that the lack of affordable housing is largely due to rich second home owners from the SE driving up prices and driving down housing stock quantity.

I think the issue is “complex” and if immigration is an issue, it is only one of many.

Agree with comments re sections of the media, some politicians, etc, …

In addition the impact tends to be focused on poorer areas with less jobs, lower pay and a failure by Govt to invest in local services. Crewe being a case in point where, when TB and GB opened the floodgates to eastern Europeans because they wanted the rapid (positive) economic impact. As allowed by the EU at the time, other countries were slower in allowing so many in. The impact on Crewe was the rapid overwhelming of local services, with some schools ending up with a majority on non-english speaking pupils which took a huge amount of attention away from existing pupils and issues. Other areas of community life were similarly impacted. Don’t know how the rest of us would respond to what we were used to for 20 years was turned on its head in 12-24 months .. .. threatened, ignored, frustrated, worried for your kids future, ….

BGs infamous response (though don’t think he was in Crewe at the time) was ‘Bigots’ when that lady with genuine worries pushed him on these points.

What I think it actually demonstrated was his remoteness and total lack of understanding of the rapid impact of his policies. That or he knew there’d be issues but there was a bigger win so he played the race/bigot card to distance himself.

Do I think the current lot would do any better, probably not.

@cerrado-tu-ruido
Full Member
Rabid lefties out in force, unable to comprehend another viewpoint or even look at the evidence.

Post the evidence and see what people say?

But why are these people not also equally vocal about reducing birth rates of those that already live here? It’s another perfectly valid cause of population growth.

The UK population is not growing because of domestic births. The UK fertility rate is 1.49 live births per woman. The “replacement rate” is 2.2 live births per woman. Like (practically?) all industrialised countries in which women are heavily engaged in the labour force, without migration the domestic population would age and shrink.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/23/birthrate-in-uk-falls-to-record-low-as-campaigners-say-procreation-is-a-luxury

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_transition

Post the evidence and see what people say?

Have a look around Europe and see what parties people are voting for.

That’s an interesting comment as it immediately made me think of the housing issues for young people in Cornwall.

Which is why I made the comment about using  a broad definition of immigration 😉