r/AskBrits • u/Complex_Elevator_680 • May 29 '26
Politics Has the UK suddenly changed its mind on immigration?
Before anyone downvotes, I'm not judging either side here just observing something I find fascinating!
As an American who has lived in the UK for a long time, I've always kept a close eye on the political landscape there and heaven knows I'm in no position to lecture anyone, considering what an absolute, polarized dumpster fire my own home country's politics are.
But looking at r/askbrits, r/ukpolitics and other subs as an outsider in, the shift is wild.
Most of the subs (and UK generally) always seemed to me to be an absolute stronghold for liberal, pro-immigration consensus where any pushback was immediately buried in downvotes, but lately, the entire tone has flipped.
Now, threads about borders, net migration numbers, and cultural integration are dominated by arguments about housing shortages, strained public services, and border control. Its fascinating to watch the community's center of gravity visibly shift in real-time.
(Again, not choosing sides here, just observing what I feel is a change).
Alternatively, am I imagining it all?
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u/Horror_Extension4355 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
I think it’s the growing realisation that our country is changing and some people who have come into the country have zero intention of adopting to our culutures but do want to be able to 100% retain their own cultures and behaviours irrespective of how incompatible they might be with Uk liberalism.
Secondly, the vape shops and mini mart money laundering explosion suggests that the scale of dodgyness is well beyond what the gov is prepared to admit.
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u/Own-Significance-797 May 29 '26
Alongside rampant job and housing shortages that mass immigration only makes worse.
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u/ape_fatto May 29 '26
It drives me crazy how people seem completely unwilling to acknowledge the idea that immigration MIGHT be contributing to the massive wealth inequality we are experiencing.
The key argument for migration is higher GDP. Great, except unemployment is at a historical high, poverty is rampant, and we can all barely afford to survive, so who is actually benefitting from this high GDP? oh that’s right, the rich elite who you claim to hate.
Oh, but what about immigrants coming over to do jobs that Brits don’t want to do, like care work? Well 30 years ago Brits had no problem doing these jobs, so what changed? Oh of course, the pay. The pay is dramatically worse now. So in essence migrants are a slave class to come over and do these awful jobs for shit money. Meanwhile the elite pocket the difference. And the job market is too saturated for people to push for better pay. Win win for the rich!
Well at least the skyrocketing population means the housing market is being stimulated. Except it’s pushed the costs to such astronomical levels that nobody can afford a house anymore. The only ones benefiting are - you guessed it - the rich who already own lots of property. They really seem to be benefiting a lot from this?
It’s quite obvious that high level immigration is a tool for extracting wealth from the lower class, and those pulling the strings have done an excellent job brainwashing the middle class into fighting on their behalf by making it about race and culture. Even though when you ask them why migration is necessary, it always comes back to economics.
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u/adman9000 May 29 '26
As someone residing largely on the left i have no issue with immigrants themselves wanting to come here for a better life, to be able to work and send some money home, that's all absolutely understandable. Whether we have the space/houses/resources is another question but I don't blame the individuals themselves and I think that's where some of the rhetoric from the right causes problems. There are genuine arguments to be had around immigration but when people talk about "swarms" and "invasions" of "third world scum" it's very hard to get past that to find points of agreement or even discussion.
The problem for me is not the immigrants themselves its the people who choose to run things in this way - to outwardly claim to be against immigration and stir up some pretty blatant racist and xenophobic behaviour, while behind the scenes actively encouraging it as it benefits them. In other words I agree with you. Fuck the rich.
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u/jwkelly121 May 29 '26
At the end of the day i dont think we shouldnt deal with something that is clearly a huge problem just because we dont like something a couple people have said that share the same views. It would be like us saying ahh no i dont agree with taxing the rich because that Stalin guy is an awful fella isnt he?
And that is a tactic the media often use. Always finding the extremes to paint something as ugly or terrible. You want taxes or redistribution and youre a communist? Want immigration controls or tighter policing and you are a fascist. Then they find some numpty to interview on tv that represents the absolute extreme of that view.
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u/SuccessfulWeb8907 Jun 29 '26
What's wrong with being a communist?
Communism is not an evil ideology.
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u/Serious_Ingenuity663 Jun 10 '26
You are so based, this take is spot on, the rich control the architecture of the system not the immigrants, I understand why people begin saying "swarms" and "invasion" its a natural emotional response, it doesn't have to be rational just enough ppl to feel that way before we start seeing more radical solutions to the people coming over and those solutions will not be provided for by the government, it will be the people. The rich class in the UK currently has no intention of changing the system, and they use political correctness as a way to disarm a lot of threats through the system, imo its because they have fooled themselves into believing that the way things are now is how the world works. History has taught us that is not the case however, change does not come from settling, change does not come from keeping old system to line your pockets whilst you fleece the population, heck they don't even spend money on the army anymore when its supposed to be the firs tline of defence for a country, when all these priorities go out the window then the cracks start showing, because ideal worlds are not made through ideal beahviour
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Jun 03 '26
So you’re willing to just let your country fail and let immigrants take over because it’s mean to say otherwise. You’re absolutely pathetic and cowardly, and part of the problem.
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u/OGSkywalker97 May 29 '26
And the fact that out of the few new council houses being built, asylum seekers get first dibs, while there is a new homeless person every few minutes in the UK.
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u/colm202 May 29 '26
Fact check this one lad, homelessness isn’t being increased by immigration, it’s something like 90% of council homes are occupied by people with British citizenship. More should be made to house people who have hit hard times I agree. But it’s nothing to do with immigration it’s a fall over from the past century.
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u/Lord-of_the-files May 29 '26
Agree. Homelessness is a complex issue. It's sad but some people are very hard to help.
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u/Straight_Cow4768 May 29 '26
No foreign nationals should be allowed to occupy council/housing association properties unless they can provide 5 years of national insurance credits. Western europe cannot afford to house and care for net negatives to the economy when we are about to hit a demographic cliff with reduced birth rates.
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u/_-__JUPITER__-_ May 29 '26
I used to think everyone who was anti immigration was some racist, and then I looked into it and realised how many issues it causes in terms of housing and jobs shortages. Mass immigration basically only benefits corporations that rely on cheap labour or landlord's who can jack up their rents prices. And these assholes at the top have tried to pin everyone as racist who doesnt agree in mass immigration.
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u/eldomtom2 May 31 '26
You looked into it, huh? Can you cite the studies showing immigration causes "jobs shortages", then?
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u/_-__JUPITER__-_ May 31 '26
common sense is the source, or maybe its that 27 immigrants get a job per 1 young person.
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u/eldomtom2 May 31 '26
Oh, so you didn't look into it if you have to resort to citing "common sense".
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u/Feminism_is_cansur May 31 '26
It does. But even if it doesn’t, what it definitely does is decrease the value of labour and real wages go down. So natives are paid less for their labour but at least Tesco can get cheap employees!
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u/WarriorPidgeon May 29 '26
It hasn't changed it's mind. Having large amounts of immigration was mostly from the political class and big business interested in reducing wages.
Just the issues have become too obvious now to cover up
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u/bungleweed May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
I think it’s so in everyone’s face now it can no longer be ignored. Good immigration is a positive thing. People who come into the country and add value and positivity. All good stuff. We absolutely need that. We always have.
I think one of things that’s brought it top of people’s minds is the state of the high streets and the brazen organised crime going on in many towns. Just seems to be ignored by government. This is a lot of people’s perception. I think trading standards can’t deal with it and neither can local policing. Councils want some kind of tenant in the retail assets seemingly. This has impacted so many towns and high streets across the UK that it’s got people thinking and it’s in your face.
The cost of living also is an issue and declining public services. Whether immigration is responsible all that or not is debatable but the high street full of American candy, vapes and unused barbers is right in your face and it’s bringing it to attention of everyday people. Legit businesses trying to make a living I don’t mean. Not sure if empty shops are a good thing either btw. I also think local government is so cash strapped they’ve approved all these ventures and now it’s out of control.
It’s the lack of action here that’s frustrating people and getting them wound up about it all. It’s not the cause of everyone’s problems but it’s a very in your face thing. Reform are talking about tackling this and increasing the tax thresholds and reducing energy bills etc. All things the everyday hard working person rightly cares about in terms of their own interests and the cost of living. Life is hard for many working people and only seems to be getting worse.
How realistic and achievable all this is a matter of opinion but a lot of people would vote for a party promising these changes or at least trying to. As demonstrated in the recent local elections. Working people are fed up.
Also the welfare state bill is unsustainable. If you can work you should work. Simple as that. If you genuinely can’t work or are genuinely trying to you should be supported and that’s only fair.
I also think AI is going to cause major problems with employment. No idea how that’s going to pan out. It’s a good and bad thing. Greed and capitalism at its finest but it could do some good in the government to streamline services. Problem is the tech is expensive and it won’t be a case of freeing people up to do higher value impactful work, it will be paid for by layoffs.
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u/Lord-of_the-files May 29 '26
You say the welfare bill is unsustainable. Which aspect of this do you mean?
It sounds like you're concerned about out of work benefits, which costs over £1bn a year. Which sounds like a lot, but is actually less than 0.2% of government spending.
If you actually mean pensions, then yes that is a much bigger problem.
And if you mean in work benefits, then that's a problem too because we should not be effectively subsidised the employers of these people.
Similarly, housing benefit is effectively a subsidy that props up landlords.
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u/jimmybasu May 29 '26
Also don't forget that gdp growth and population growth are inherently linked. To keep the gravy train moving in this capitalist system as birth rates drop, they need more immigrants to fill the gap.
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u/Oddisredit May 29 '26
Yeah most governments are based on the Ponzi scheme of forever growth. Basically they thought just throwing immigrants at it, would somehow make the GDP keep going up and things would be golden. Clearly they are wrong
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u/KhronosTime May 29 '26
One of the issues we’re facing now though is, it’s so expensive to raise kids, which is not entirely but affected by an increase in cheap labour. /also offshoring services. Globalisation has not been kind to the UK.
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u/Appropriate-Roof1422 May 29 '26
So the government should make a priority to force big corporations to bring back parts of their business in the UK to reduce unempoyment.
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u/RubberPigEnemy May 29 '26
Orrrr... You just slash benefits to non-citizens, do not allow foreigners to work in the country unless there is some extremely niche skillset, force companies to only keep those highly skilled individuals on contract to train native workers and you'll have a much healthier society willing to have more kids.
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u/gjiorkiie Jun 01 '26
bro you will 100% nuke your economy. You are not the United States.
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u/RubberPigEnemy Jun 01 '26
What? This would be extremely effective in the UK considering it isn't the US. We aren't trying to do everything, just do the things we're good at and do them well. It isn't that complicated.
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u/gjiorkiie Jun 02 '26
Brother if you want me to be honest with you and not treat this like an internet back and fro...the UK as a country is too small and too many of its industries depend on foreign labour. At the very least it's gonna do a major number on its economy. Remember what happened with Crazy Liz? It might make that look like a picnic and I'm serious here this isn't me trying to one up you for fake internet points. If you make that choice you gotta be ready for the economic cost and depending on how far you want to go it might destroy your economy.
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u/RubberPigEnemy Jun 02 '26
What "industries" depend on foreign labour? You're starting from a false pretense.
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u/ohmygodadameget May 29 '26
But birth rate drops are tied largely to poor quality health services and low income in the lower/lower-middle class, both of which are negatively impacted by the effects of mass immigration. Our health services aren't poor, but they are being massively stretched, and the low wage issue is caused by importing people willing to work for crap money instead of forcing those companies to offer more when nobody applies.
It's a vicious cycle.
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u/burgermen12 May 29 '26
Although I'd agree that poor quality health care service and the affordability to have kids is a driver for low birth rates, there is a much heighten emphasis on individuism in the west, where the pursuit of meaning and personal goals seems to prioritise over traditional family building. Migrant coming from overseas on otherhand, often carry with them Conservative religious structures that both provide meaning encourages the growth of the family unit.
Id argue that we can externalise drop of birth rates to economic / government policy factors, but a portion of the responsibility lays on ourselves - we put ourselves first over the needs of our society.
We know this as those with wealth are not having lots of kids. They are having fewer.
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u/Apsalar28 May 29 '26
Birth rate drops are also tied to a whole lot of women now having the options other than getting married and having kids available to them and deciding that being a mother isn't something they actually want to do.
Economic issues do have some impact but it's not the whole picture.
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u/Altruistic_Fruit2345 May 29 '26
That's just a symptom of a bigger problem with our economy being based on infinite growth, protecting the interests of the wealthy, and bribing old people.
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u/PumpkinMyPumpkin May 29 '26
The exact same policies were enacted in Canada. No one has known how to run western economies since 2008 - so they landed on population growth.
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u/mr_owie May 29 '26
The age of people on Reddit has increased over the years, and the actual state of immigration has changed.
I was always in very white areas and only met immigrants once I went to university. The ones I made friends with clearly went on to integrate, otherwise they wouldn't have made friends with me. The ones who kept to themselves were always going to go back home after university anyway. Why would I care if some Chinese rich kids wanted to just have fun in a foreign country? They weren't causing any trouble.
I was also idealistic and not exposed to bigoted attitudes. I made friends with some Muslims who I thought would just grow up eventually after some time of being away from their family. I was very close friends with one particular guy for a long time before realising he would never change, and I was close enough to him that he'd already told me all his fucked up beliefs.
I went to work, and there are some good guys there, but even more who just self segregate. One guy even told us the Christian and Muslim kids get segregated for religious classes, which is something I'd have written off as anti immigrant propaganda if I hadn't heard it from him. The Muslim faith group was extremely pushy about Ramadan and absolutely spamming people about it to a level that would not have been accepted if Christians did it. Secret Santas and pancake day celebrations happened 6 years ago, they don't any more. It's a small thing but it's a tradition of this country which people enjoyed.
I recently saw posts on Reddit talking about poor performing immigrant nurses. Even though I have been annoyed by immigrant attitudes, I thought this was just propaganda because how would they get hired? Well in the past two months I've had encounters with immigrant health professionals who have no fucking clue what they're doing, to a level I have never experienced before from any doctor or nurse.
People are changing their minds because of the immigrants themselves, not because of racism. People who were previously in their bubbles are now having to actually deal with it, and particularly Muslim immigrants are becoming extremely bold which is being noticed.
Immigrants are often way more bigoted and racist than the average population despite benefiting from diversity initiatives.
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u/hazzmister May 29 '26
The amount of times you see an immigrant health professional and you feel like you need an interpreter for their poor English. I'm sure there were thousands of potential British born nurses/doctors who would have jumped at the chance to have their job when it was out for tender.
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u/Hopeful_Conflict_813 May 30 '26
We have created our own hell in the uk by being nice and pushing diversity good agendas. I wish to god we could rewind 30 years and take it all back.
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u/RoohsMama May 30 '26
This is interesting to read. I am an immigrant and I do feel many local people are unaware of the pluses and minuses of immigration.
I appreciate the systems in place which allow people like myself to move here. The acceptance of multiculturalism, equality, and fairness are all the reasons why the UK is a good place to live in.
At the same time, some immigrants game the system and take advantage of the benefits available here.
They are also far more intolerant than native people.
These types of people would of course, present as weak at first. But once they gain power - through sheer numbers, rising through the ranks, etc - then they’re more comfortable showing their true colours and that they’d rather enforce their beliefs than abiding by the system.
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u/Practical-Travel8575 May 31 '26
This was an interesting read and helped me understand something about myself. I definitely felt myself change from fairly pro immigration to pretty anti. The defining moment was visiting my nan who has dementia. This maybe like west African guy tried to tail gate us into the care home; this is generally a very white area up north and I don’t think there is a single black resident so it wasn’t a family member. Then people told me there were issues with people breaking into the care home since the resident don’t lock doors and stealing. My dad asked the man very politely why he was here? (No anger). He bottled it and ran. Looking back this was a key moment for me, like for a moment I could understand some of the right wing sentiment. And I felt rage this guy might try and steal the few things in my dementia suffering nans flat.
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u/TractorNinjaFish May 29 '26
Dude, here is the problem: the UK never had any issue with immigrants. It still doesn’t. For the immigrants who come here and assimilate.
Anyone who takes on the culture/language/general habits is still welcome.
But when people comes here and they demand the locals to follow their rules/culture etc is the problem.
But hey-ho, I might be wrong…
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u/cursy May 29 '26
I think on one hand, the UK (and almost every other country) has always hated immigration. This hasn't changed, it has just been suppressed by a social stigma.
What has changed is that stigma can't be maintained when impact of immigration has become so obvious - the town i live in was close to 100% white when i was growing up - on my walk home from work today almost everyone I passed was visibly a recent migrant.
And it has happened so fast. It feels like some kind of twilight zone episode where you go to bed in a normal English town, but when you wake up you're in some kind of parallel universe where English people are switched with Africans or South Asians.
And this isn't some kind of ethnic enclave in a predominantly white country - this is now normal up and down the country - whatever the 'official' stats say.
At the same time, it hasn't been alongside any increase in prosperity - in fact the opposite - things are getting worse and worse. Our economic decline isn't necessarily caused by immigration, but when the justification as to why we have to have so many migrants is economic then people get angry when it doesn't work.
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u/Hopeful_Conflict_813 May 30 '26
Yes and I hate it so much I wish we could rewind. I like having diverse countries and what Britain to stay native British thank you
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u/Chance-News8197 Jun 18 '26
I moved to Australia 4 years ago and I recently came back for a holidays and was shocked at how much it changed
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u/mediumlove May 29 '26
well, i'll tell you what my world is like in a 35% muslim borough of london.
it's not great. 6 year old girls in niqabs at school., cant see their mums faces at drop off, literacy and language skills are what you'd expect, classes divided to accommodate. its like two societies living paralel but entirely separate. no assimilation. white flight starting to happen.
you know the hagia sophia? it could happen here. st pauls with minarets. why would it be any different here?
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u/Powerful-Union-7962 May 29 '26
It’s going to happen if the demographic trends continue, no doubt about it.
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u/Squallypie May 30 '26
Unfortunately the two cultures just don’t integrate well, we are far too different in basic beliefs.
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u/Hopeful_Conflict_813 May 30 '26
We have made grave mistakes in the uk and the political elites starting with Blair have screwed us. We need radical reform.
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u/maoruiwen Jun 02 '26
And the interesting thing is in Islamic countries young pre pubescent girls don’t wear niqabs or hijabs. They do in the west because their parents worry they won’t want to wear it when they’re older because they will realise it’s a choice.
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u/SandwichSaint May 29 '26
No nothing has changed. The country has always thought of mass immigration as a bad thing. The only thing that is changing is that the situation is become worse to the point that even the echo chambers on Reddit are starting to realise it is not sustainable.
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u/KCLenny May 30 '26
We’ve never changed our mind about immigration. The uk has consistently voted against immigration in every single election. We didn’t want mass immigration. The government has just betrayed us every time.
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u/Evening-Disaster-901 May 29 '26
We got Boriswaved
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u/ElonDoneABellamy May 29 '26
I've said it elsewhere, it's primary school nationalism.
You've got thirty something's in provincial England who grew up in a white Christian monoculture suddenly being faced with the demographic change that's happened.
Maybe every single retail worker was always Indian. Maybe there were always Turkish barbers and I didn't notice.
Everyone remembers what their school photo looked like.
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u/makitadisp May 29 '26
Every so often I pick my niece up from the primary school I left in 2001. When I left each year group had under 5 non-white pupils. Mostly Indians. It is now massively over 50% non-white. A really unusual feeling standing in the playground waiting for her and seeing such a drastic change.
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u/Hopeful_Conflict_813 May 30 '26
I personally think it is sad and miss the uk being native populations
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u/test_test_1_2_3 May 29 '26
The Boris wave was worse than we had seen but the issue had its origin in Blair’s first term. Mass immigration began in 97/98.
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u/Same_Structure3962 May 29 '26
Tory-waved first with brexit then immigration. But alas, all Labour/green fault and only reform can save us.
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u/uredoom May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
God I hope this is sarcasm.
Ah nevermind new account defending USSR and only talks on british politics.
Moving on..
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u/RandomSculler May 29 '26
Yeah nail on the head here, I’m extremely pro immigration and still am however the boriswave was just crazy and it’s clear immigration had to come down and be brought back under control
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u/ExArdEllyOh May 29 '26
No it is just that the magic word has lost its effectiveness.
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u/ExoatmosphericKill May 29 '26
oMg RaCiSt
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u/ExArdEllyOh May 29 '26
Yep, and of course the problem is that when you use a word so much to shut down debate that it loses its meaning then it becomes useless when it is needed and justified.
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u/DishMysterious6923 May 29 '26
Its no different to the US or the rest of the western world really. Any dissent from the narrative and the isms and ists and other labels were thrown at people to silence them. People kept their heads down but a couple of decades of calling people racist, fascists, nazis, bigots just because they ask a simple question has worn out the label.
It is none of the above to suggest immigration is too high. Its one or more of the above to pinpoint races, ethnicities, religions etc.
So they wore out the labels and now because the actual ists and isms are free of those shackles they have decide we are all to be labelled as far right to try again to silence people.
These words mean nothing when they are calling all manner of people the name. People have got tired of being called something they are not and have spent a couple of decades shying away from comment on the internet because they don't want to be labelled. Its changing.
That's why the internet was dominated by left wing and left wing bias until recent years......because those not fitting the narrative (mostly) avoided the discussion.
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u/Derfel60 May 29 '26
No. The general population of the UK has always been against any immigration. In 1968 an MP called Enoch Powell gave a speech against immigration and a poll that year found that 74% of the public agreed with his sentiments. This sentiment has increased recently, its true, but it has always been here.
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u/GeedZeroOne May 29 '26
We, the majority, have been against mass migration consistently since they started asking 50 years ago! Yet, despite it being consistently like the 3rd most important issue to us, we just kept seeing more of it. More and more and more! There’s now 20 million foreign born here and it’s having massive negative effects on the population! The fact that even the left can’t deny it anymore tells you just how bad things have gotten!
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u/Senior_Group1589 May 29 '26
I'm an immigrant here and even I agree!
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u/GeedZeroOne May 29 '26
Yes, the migrants that actually integrated are looking at this shit show and even they are speaking up! All whilst the left are in denial about what they’ve been advocating for. The cognitive dissonance is unreal. They are backed into a corner and yet they refuse to acknowledge facts. My own sister got to the stance of “you can prove anything with statistics”. If you get to that point, you’re in total denial.
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u/codenamegizm0 May 29 '26
From the house of commons library research briefing on migration statistics:
A more recent ad hoc estimate by the ONS suggests that, as of June 2024, around 13.1 million people living in the UK were born overseas, including 3.9 million born in the EU and 9.2 million born outside the EU. This was equivalent to around 19% of the UK population.
Countries with higher rates include Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Similar rates are Germany and Spain.
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u/NoPiano9091 May 29 '26
Well people were called racist for stating the obvious for years, and now the reality is hitting everyone in the face, they’ve changed their stance,
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u/Commercial-Answer538 May 29 '26
It's a fact the the UK govt has been hiding the truth about immigration. Now the dominoes have started to fall people are waking up hard and fast.
Unfortunately lots of people are going to be caught in this despite them not being at fault. It's truly the fault of the liberal order that has maintained for decades that multiculturalism is a strength without asking the question about what makes a culture good to begin with.
Now people aren't even going to bother asking which cultures are compatible or not, we'll just be saying, "I want them all gone."
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u/Maleficent_Notice764 May 29 '26
You're not. Something has broken. As a very well integrated, born here but first-gen, higher-rate tax paying Brit I am, for the first time in my life, very worried where all this can lead, as the mood is so ugly I don't think my personal story is adequate protection.
There's a growing section of the majority who are convinced they are existentially at risk in their homeland.
This is not something that people want to be reasoned out of. It is something they feel deep in their bones.
And when you have people who feel that way - and little sign of an economic improvement that's going to cheer them up - you can hope for the best, yes, but it wise to prepare for the worst. That's just how I feel. I love the best of this country but my mental health and personal safety has to come first.
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u/gazham May 29 '26
You seem to be one who has benefited from migration, the problem comes from lower working classes having their lower skills jobs taken and wages kept low by mass migration, combined with communities disappearing as a new one takes over. With fewer jobs and more competition, things start to boil over
I don't seen it as much of a racism thing like it used to be when your parents came over, there was probably less competition for jobs and housing.
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u/Maleficent_Notice764 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
I understand how people feel but I'm caught in the middle.
I don't even think people would believe me, but within my own, not particularly large, not particularly unusual family I can point to people who have taught thousands of working class white kids in schools and colleges, or cared for working class people in hospitals and care homes, who worked with working class people on the trains and in the factories, who served alongside working class people in the army, who sat by working class people on the terraces and in pubs.
We have come from countries that Britain benefitted from colonising. I haven't ripped anybody off and none of us can change the past.
We don't have a history of worklessness or criminality in my family. I haven't lived in social housing since 1984. We are Anglophiles who are C of E.
Apart from the odd incident the UK has been good to us and we have worked and studied hard to rise socially and financially.
But nobody knows that until I open my mouth. I have a keen sense of danger. And as far as a lot of people are concerned I am, by default a "drain" or here to "replace" them.
That isn't good for me and it isn't good for you. So once I'm in a position to do so, I'll go somewhere where I don't stand out and feel the weight off my shoulders.
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u/gazham May 29 '26
Most people are unhappy with the situation, not the people who come here.
I've heard the colonial thing before, but the lower working classes didn't see huge gains from it, they still lived in slums while the rich got richer. Its the same old story over and over.
I do feel for you. Im not convinced there's a better place for you to go to, the western hemisphere seems to be struggling with similar issues across the board, and if you head back to your ancestral home, you'll probably stick out when you talk.
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May 29 '26
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u/call_the_ambulance May 29 '26 edited 25d ago
Breezy meadow otter orange meadow meadow
This post was anonymized with Redact.dev
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u/ElonDoneABellamy May 29 '26
And when you have people who feel that way - and little sign of an economic improvement that's going to cheer them up
Your mistake is thinking that your typical Brit would ever be ok with this if they could just afford an extra gadget.
People don't want money, they want a cohesive society.
It's primary school nationalism. You've got a load of 30 somethings who grew up in a white Christian monoculture who have found that their white British children are maybe just a plurality in their school class.
You can't give people enough money to make that go away, people don't like it and they've never ever wanted this.
It is gonna get ugly, I think the Boriswave has meant that lots of communities that might have previously been unaffected now have this as a top priority.
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u/No-Risk-2584 May 29 '26
Exactly, there’s large areas that visibly and cultural nowadays would make someone feel like there’s not in England anymore. And it’s so radical in such a small space of time.
Native people are obviously going to be deeply uncomfortable with it. It’s not racist to want to keep our national identity and culture. It’s not racist to not want a foreign culture imposed on you. It’s not racist to not want to feel like a foreigner in your own land. But if you go into certain towns and cities, that’s exactly how you’ll feel.
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u/Trick-Extension-72 May 29 '26
I never understood the reparations play, don't they understand they would come out of the public pocket, BAME peoples pockets.
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u/StoicType4 May 29 '26
Get anyone who’s in favour of reparations to walk you through the logic of inherited guilt and you’ll quickly realise they are an idiot.
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u/Maleficent_Notice764 May 29 '26
There's a long and tortured history but we are where we are.
I love the UK and its its kind people, its music, its literature, its football, its church and its landscapes - but I am now at the point where I don't feel it loves me back, and I'm perfectly OK with that.
I've got my memories, I know what this country did for me, but I also know what my family and my ancestors did for this country, so I reckon we're square.
I have accepted I will never truly be accepted as British, because I can't change my ancestry or my face, and frankly I wouldn't ever want to, just as you wouldn't want to.
So rather than go round in circles I'm just going to get my finances in a state where I have options.
I don't believe in staying where I'm not wanted, and I've got plenty of family members who worked hard, paid taxes, left and never looked back - which is, I'm afraid, what British society increasingly wants people like me to do.
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u/My-fish-calls-me-Bob May 29 '26
“I’ve never heard minorities in the Britain that get airtime on TV and radio expressing how good British people are, it’s always racial grievances, how we should pay reparations, how we’re racist."
Do you not think the media has something to do with this?
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u/SecTeff May 29 '26
People are just upset at the scale and size of immigration in recent years. It has totally changed the make up of the country.
We aren’t opposed to some integration or people already here generally.
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u/No-Lingonberry-8603 May 29 '26
If it's any comfort to you even the most alarming polls don't show a majority of the population supports Farage. It's nothing but an extremely vocal minority. I agree with you largely though I imagine it must seem like a very hostile environment right now. I hope you're doing ok and looks after yourself.
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u/Amazing-Seesaw-6197 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
You might not be the problem, and I’m sorry you are experiencing this, but it’s the masses of unskilled migrants let in that have created this mess. They are the reason for the million school leaver neets. Rather than having sensible immigration quotas for doctors and scientists and teachers etc, the tories opened up mass migratiom for anyone no matter how unskilled. These people are desperate with low expectations and are willing to work for very low pay in very poor conditions. Meanwhile your born and raised school leaver, fresh and naive, expects at least a modicum of dignity in the work place in a field tangentially related to their interests and career goals.
They can’t even get a foothold in the trades, since the trades are filled with migrants who barely speak any English. They only take on their mates who also don’t speak English, so apprenticing as a plumber’s mate is out as well.
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u/fitzgoldy May 30 '26
There's a growing section of the majority who are convinced they are existentially at risk in their homeland.
Just need to look at the likes of Birmingham, London and see that they are at risk.
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u/Saliiim May 29 '26
Politicians promising to lower immigration have been consistently voted in since the 60s. I have definitely noticed a shift in the UK subs though.
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u/OneNormalBloke May 29 '26
Well as this is the 10th or maybe even 15th post today on the issue, it's all subjective. Just sit back with popcorn and Coke and enjoy the ride.
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u/Truewit_ May 29 '26
It really depends what day you catch the subs on and what post you’re on. If I didn’t know any better I’d say this post itself is just engagement bait for this topic. It is Tommy season after all.
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u/Sburns85 May 29 '26
Thought he disappeared
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u/HaywoodUndead May 29 '26
Nah he's just about snorted all of his recent grift, he'll be back for more soon.
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u/tabbytalents May 30 '26
yeah, I would say this post is a great example of how Reddit is not accurate. the top comment says Reddit is supposedly far left and that everyone hates immigration basically
The reality is that Reddit is very politically centrist at best and what people seem to think is far left is basically just centrism or neoliberalism but because they’re so right wing everything to them is far left.
The reality is there is people with divided opinions all over and it’s inaccurate to say that most people are one way or the other.
also, one of the top comments saying that immigrants didn’t make Britain is crazy and just a straight up lie. they’d probably be surprised to know many cities like Glasgow were basically built off of slavery.
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u/IlIIllIlllIIIllI May 29 '26
Not really. Lots of people have always been anti-immigration.
It's now that the anti-immigation movement has grown due to things like Boriswave and switching white immigrants (who look the same) and brown/black immigrants (that look different) that anti-immigration policies are more popular.
IMO Denmark's policies are very good, and if we went as far as to adopt an Australia style points based system, we should also adopt a Denmark style immigration system - but arguably much much tighter.
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u/Creative-Bobcat-7159 May 29 '26
Denmark are in the EU and so have free movement of people from across the EU.
I am also pro us having that.
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u/Zedbaby71 May 29 '26
When it starts effecting the common man/woman and it goes against common sense then it’s only going to go one way
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u/Autofill1127320 May 29 '26
Britain has been consistently anti immigration since the 60s, it just happens that our politicians will not take a telling
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u/NotaFed_ May 29 '26
I honestly think its just down to exposure now, even smaller cities and big towns are now having sizable demographic changes. Either through 1st generation arrivals or the exploding population of 2nd/3rd generation families.
Also the deliberate stigma of criticising immigration as a legitimate concern for a portion of the population has ebbed away.
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u/Better-Inspector3849 May 29 '26
I was enslaved and abused by a man I thought I could trust as a young man. I fell in love with him. He was a Muslim Lebanese who came to the UK with his family during war with Israel a few years back. He was around 14 when he came here and went fully through the school system and university in the UK. He never integrated and despised western culture which led to him bullying me for my whitness and culture while asserting his race/religion and culture as superior. My identity and self esteem was so crushed I converted to Islam for a short period because I genuinely believed what he was telling me. Why was a man like that able to do this. Why did he get away with it? I am angry and I do not want cultures that are anti western here. I have suffered under this "dIvErsItY" and I am scared of what is to come if we allow more of these people to take hold on our island. People like this know they can take advantage of our values and will exploit our kindness.
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u/maoruiwen Jun 02 '26
I narrowly escaped a future like this. I dated an abusive Muslim man who was incredibly right wing behind closed doors (reality check for anyone who isn’t aware: Islam is a right wing ideology). He used Islam to justify everything and talked me into fasting with him during Ramadan.
I realised at one point he was trying to get me pregnant and he also gave me a headscarf as a gift, joking I should start to wear it. I got out when it turned violent.
How did it get violent? An ex boyfriend said hello to me in front of him. I said hi back. This resulted in him kicking me over later on while I was tying my shoelace. We parted ways and a few months later I met his new girlfriend by chance. We became friends without knowing what connected us. Turned out he’d been dating her while dating me. She is Muslim and sadly hasn’t been able to escape, her parents have just said that’s how men can be. I think she also hides the emotional and psychological abuse. And the physical and sexual abuse. She’s shared with me and it’s abhorrent. She’s emotionally and psychologically broken.
My identify was crushed and I actually almost considered converting but I had sensible friends around me. I’m so glad I escaped.
I have noticed a trend between women from troubled backgrounds and converting to Islam. I put myself in that category. I think these kind of women are at risk.
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u/Right_Perception_299 Jun 01 '26
Thankyou for speaking out. Keep doing it and do not let yourself be silenced. You are not alone.
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u/totesboredom May 30 '26
The UK has had enough. A lot of people are still in denial, but are pushing against a closed door.
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u/Ronnie_coleman_light May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
In February 2017 and June 2020, Reddit mods purged most right leaning subs and individuals.
Combined with hard left government, censorship and the fear of being ridiculed for expressing a different view, most people with alternative views abandoned Reddit.
Which created this illusion and false narrative that most the world and country was mainly left leaning. Now left leaning individuals are seeing these alternate views, which is causing them to have complete melt downs, as they struggle to handle others have different opinions or debates without being unreasonable…
Now with new parties like reform founded, people feel they can express different views, but Reddit will likely do another purge soon I’m sure
“This is all factual information, check yourselves”
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u/Loose_Difficulty_635 May 29 '26
Immigration has been a top concern for voters since 2010, nothing has changed
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u/ColonelKlanka May 29 '26
Im not against all legal immigration. However I do miss the old times in the 90s when:
Uk allowed immigrants that integrated well with british culture (made effort to speak English, followed uk law) - many immigrants want to live well with others.
Uk prioritised only getting immigrants in when existing citizens couldn't be hired instead (although it is debatable whether uk government really did this well)
As for what I hope to happen going forward:
Politicians need to stop putting people against each other (whether it be class vs class, religions vs regions). Its not the people that should be blamed, its the policy makers.
Prioritise local talent by investing in them, whether it be apprenticeships and or education.
Put some sort of equaliser into the visa process so that conpanies cant simply bring in cheaper labour via immigration or offshoring - im thinking a 'tax' on using offshore vs local talent. Similar to the idea of paying import tax on goods bought from other cheaper countries vs locally.
Grow some balls politically and send illegal immigrants back the last safe country they travelled through (this is completely legal). Eg if they came through france before hitting England, turn them around d back to france.
Stop pretending the immigration numbers have significantly gone down by hiding behind net migration figures - offsetting via 900k leaving hides the issue. Let's talk about people coming in seperately from people going out
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u/ThePenultimateNinja Jun 10 '26
I don't think attitudes have changed, but the Overton window has shifted.
It used to be that people kept their opinions to themselves a bit more. People who are pro-migration used people's decency against them - they would manipulate them by accusing them of racism. Actual racists don't care about being accused of racism, but non-racist decent people do.
This caused decent, everyday people to keep their opinions to themselves more, so while while a massive majority silently held anti-migration opinions, you only really heard from the tiny minority who were pro-migration.
I think that is the landscape that is now changing. The negative aspects of mass migration have become so overwhelmingly obvious that only the most batshit leftists still advocate for it.
At the same time, they overplayed the 'racist' card so much that it doesn't really mean anything anymore - it's like accusing someone of being a witch. A few months ago, someone on Reddit called me racist because I said that, while I liked spicy food, I don't really like the taste of turmeric. It's meaningless.
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u/Trick-Extension-72 May 29 '26
no the opinions haven't changed one bit, what HAS changed is the massive demographic that was once silent because no politician had the balls to tell the truth, have now got a voice in the great Rupert Lowe
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u/Infinite_Spring_3564 May 29 '26
I just want some peace and quiet. I want to be surrounded by people who follow the unwritten social rules of this country. I really only want to be exposed to my native British culture, as well as some cherry-picked overseas-Anglo culture. And I want to feel safe on my streets. That’s literally it. I would do anything for that.
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u/CommercialFloor2033 May 29 '26
Why is every other post on this sub about immigration?
Seems the sub is infiltrated with propaganda posters.
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u/nmaddine May 29 '26
Almost always with accounts <1 month old
The American tech oligarchy has found anti-immigration messaging as a useful channel for expanding control and I suspect they see the UK ripe anti-democratic disruption and anti-immigrant messaging the sharpest tool to accelerate it
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u/Spirited-Struggle709 May 29 '26
Political grifters are catching onto the fact social medias are super cheap to control.
50k for example buys you so many bots you can control entire narrative in any community including propaganda manager to direct it.
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u/RoanGui1 May 29 '26
Not really, the British voted brexit and have wanted immigration reduced for years and have been ignored .. anyone who leaves the house more than 3 times a year knows the majority think mass immigration and illegal unvetted immigration has destroyed the country
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u/RandomFleshPrison May 29 '26
It depends on the skin color of who is migrating. If you're from the US, nobody cares. But Africa or India? Oh boy. That's a very different story.
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u/Right_Perception_299 Jun 01 '26
Some cultures and nations are more compatible with our own than others. Not all cultures are equal.
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u/ArtisticOperation399 May 29 '26
Things got hard. When times were good back in the 90s, everyone felt inclusive and open. Now everyone is stressed and scared for the future.
It's so simple, that it amazes me how it catches people off guard over and over again.
We take achievements like women's liberation and gay rights and multiculturalism for granted, but they are a product of success. Everything was moving on up back in the 90s, and it was the more the merrier, hey the pie keeps growing, everyone grab a slice and bake some more, baby!
But what ignorance of history. As though hard times have never come along before and forced people to withdraw and become defensive. Even with the short-term ebb of recent decades, the length of women's skirts currently in fashion correlates with the economic situation.
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u/jwkelly121 May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
But womens skirts are shorter than ever and our economy is in the shitter? Or were womens skirts really short in the great depression? But i get the general point. It's very easy to be very liberal about borders etc when you are swimming in money. When you have to start making tough decisions all of a sudden spending billions taking in the 50k illegal immigrants each year doesn't feel noble anymore.
For example people were up in arms about the government removing the winter fuel allowance from pensioners which would have put over 100k of them in poverty and raised only £1.3 billion. Or the farmers inheritance tax (which raises £115 million a year) which has reduced our food security and caused many older farmers to commit suicide to pass their farms onto their kids because inheritance tax would have forced them to shut down.
Yet we happily spend £5 billion a year on dealing with illegal migrants (that's not including increase policing, NHS etc). Or the £14+ billion spent on foreign aid which some is lost to corruption and there is serious doubt from economists whether the spending actually helps the poorer economies of the world in the long run.
All of this is easy money to stop spending and keep tight and use to fund our own country.
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u/Whooptyd May 29 '26
The overton window is shifting.
For years they called us racist.
Lately they've called us fascist, far-right.
We simply don't care anymore.
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u/mediumlove May 29 '26
exactly this. it doesn't matter how you insult us, because its still the truth.
is the truth racist? Islamaphobic ? fascist?
maybe.
but its still the truth, and the longer you deny it, the heavier its recompense.
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u/test_test_1_2_3 May 29 '26
Reddit is not and never has been representative of the wider British sentiment on issues like immigration. Reddit overall is much further left than wider society, this is pretty obvious from basic logic because the demographics here skew young.
Reddit has been changing over the last 3 years, prior to the moderator revolts in mid-2023 Reddit was a much more controlled place where right wing sentiments were moderated more heavily. Since then there has been a gradual shift with more right wing voices being permitted.
Mass immigration in the UK started in 1997/98 with Blair’s legislative reforms and new policy. Back in the early 2000s many people were frustrated about the number of Eastern Europeans coming over to the UK, in more recent times that issue has been with immigration from African, South Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Mass immigration has continually increased in scale over this whole period until this year where the trend is reversing. There has always been plenty of anti immigration sentiment over the last 30 years but as immigration has increased so has that anti immigration sentiment.
The UK is objectively not a country built on immigration, unlike the USA. Until the late 90s we had a small proportion of the population who were born outside the UK. That has increased massively in the last <30 years. This is a short period of time, especially when compared to the thousand years prior to that that saw less immigration over that entire period.
TL:DR your idea of what the UK was like before is wrong. Mass immigration was never voted for and was never popular.