Do you think mass immigration has strained the UK?

Although it has been uneasy at times, I think the large urban populations in Britain had successfully adjusted to mass non-white immigration and on the whole the new commonwealth migrants have been integrating or at least co-existing reasonably well. One trigger to the recent surge of anti-migrant rhetoric has been the E. European migration into previously 'untouched' zones like the eastern and southern coastal towns, plus some waves of war zone refugees from places like Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

However, the main point is that the economic collapse has caused the usual hunt for scapegoats. Poorer communities who were already somewhat marginalised, plus people recently cast into poverty from what were reasonably coping situations, are naturally very angry at all the hits to their incomes and it is easy for manipulative bastards like UKIP (and to some extent Tories and Labour) to point fingers and get them into a state of hysteria.

So much nicer for everyone at the top, especially the bankers and people in the City!

It does as sound as though deprived towns in some areas, particularly the ex-mining and textile towns have it particularly bad in all kinds of ways. It's surprising that discontent doesn't lead to more troubles in those places - I would guess that there will be more. However, are they really issues of 'immigration' as such? Or just general social and economic collapse of traditional industries hitting the migrant communities just as hard? I don't know much about the economy of Bradford, but a quick scan of the Wikipedia entry suggests it suffers much the same economic woes as other parts of S. Yorkshire. Interestingly, the population is given as 67% white.

They don't, but it depends what you mean as well. Most people are ambiguous about immigration and a lot of people accept that immigrants provide value to the country as well as costs. Polls show a mixed picture.

People who live alongside immigrants, for example in big cities, tend to be much less anti-immigration than people who live in mainly non-immigrant areas.

Because EU immigration. Numbers wise is the largest.

It has also utterly destroyed the social fabric of this country, and this is the main problem with it. If diversity and multiculturalism is so wonderful then why did 620,000 English people leave their capital city between 2001-2011? Probably because they hate what has happened to it.

How do you feel about the fact that almost entirely the British people disagree with you and hate what has happened to their country?

Since when?

In the last 10 years immigration from the EU has been less than immigration from non-EU countries. Net migration has also been lower.

Source:
ONS - http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-320521



What was the social fabric of the country, how has immigration destroyed it and why is that a bad thing?



Please provide evidence for those claims.

no mate the banks/government caused a recession now they need someone to blame so they blame it on immigration.. people are just victims of propaganda.

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No way, **** - you've just made me see the error of my ways - I want more foreigners here now!

You're right, there's no such thing as British culture that's just a right wing lie! Importing the third world into Britain has brought wonders to this evil racist country and made it good!

That might be true in a handful of urban cores, but the non-white population has doubled in the last 20 years and the white immigrant population is almost entirely new in that time..

The white immigrant population is certainly not new. Look at the figures for non-UK born populations from 1951 to 2011.

Yes, definitely strained the UK.

I'm sorry, but if I have one more person barking at me in broken English because I couldn't understand what she was trying to say, I'll be mad.

Do you believe immigration is ultimately good for Britain? What sort of changes if any would you make?

How many of them in the early days were culturally British, 100% British-descended re-patriates from the empire?

I was reading a book recently about the Royal Navy in WWI and it was suggested that the German population might outnumber the British home army after the dispatch of the BEF; I believe the number was still only in the 10s of thousands though.

I'm sorry, but if I have one more person barking at me in broken English because I couldn't understand what she was trying to say, I'll be mad.

I wouldn't do anything about EU immigration. That is part of the deal for being in the EU.

In relation to the rest of the world, the idea that one can somehow separate economic migrants from refugees or from couples marrying is nonsense on stilts. All of this migration needs to be recognised as economic migration.

As such we should be setting up refugee camps either in the UK or in off shore locations at our expense, in which people can remain until such time as they are safe to return home. Refugee status should never be a ticket to integration in the UK community.

I would stop being a spouse from being an independent head of entitlement to a visa. Marriage is a economic as much as a romantic decision (and outside of western circles it is often not a romantic decision at all). You can marry who you want, but where you can enjoy family life together is a decision that is subject to and does not override immigration considerations.

I gave you the British expatriates from India in my previous post. The 152,000 Poles in 1951 or the 96,000 Germans weren't repatriated Brits. Nor were the nearly half a million Irish.

I wouldn't do anything about EU immigration. That is part of the deal for being in the EU.

In relation to the rest of the world, the idea that one can somehow separate economic migrants from refugees or from couples marrying is nonsense on stilts. All of this migration needs to be recognised as economic migration.

As such we should be setting up refugee camps either in the UK or in off shore locations at our expense, in which people can remain until such time as they are safe to return home. Refugee status should never be a ticket to integration in the UK community.

I would stop being a spouse from being an independent head of entitlement to a visa. Marriage is a economic as much as a romantic decision (and outside of western circles it is often not a romantic decision at all). You can marry who you want, but where you can enjoy family life together is a decision that is subject to and does not override immigration considerations.

Irish are special, and hardly count.

The Poles were of a limited supply, and had a special connection to the country as mostly ex-servicemen who fought under British command.

There is no precedent in 1950, or in 1970, for the mass influx of people with little or no personal or family connection to this country.

If you can't be bothered to explain what you mean (or back up your claims with evidence) then don't bother posting.