The Student Room Group

Opinions about Immigration into the UK?

It's been in the news alot lately, just wondered what other people's opinions are?

Scroll to see replies

It's a problem. Our country is already crowded as it is, and allowing even more people (who won't necessarily have useful skills) into the country is a bad idea.
Reply 2
It's to be expected, it's not a bad thing
It a generally a good thing, but it would be better if we could control it more than we currently can.
Reply 4
What a shame having people coming over who actually want to work and will leave again before we have to start paying for their retirement
I'd much rather hard working immigrants populate this country than benefit scrounging sponging natives, of which there are far too many.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 6
It could be better managed and policed.
As if the many, many threads on the issue were not detailed enough on the matter:biggrin:
Reply 8
The UK should share the same policies as Oz and NZ, where only skilled/professional immigrants are allowed (i.e doctors, engineers, Scientists, Lecturers. etc).

The UK has enough man/woman power to fill in construction/maintenance/etc jobs without extra man power via immigration.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 9
It's certainly helpful to spot the closet racists coming out.
Okay, a point to add-what about asylum seekers who can either come here, or go back to their own country, where they're likely to be killed or oppressed? What are people's opinions on this?
if they've passed other safe countries on the way here, then they should not be allowed to stay here!
Reply 12
Original post by theclicheblonde
Okay, a point to add-what about asylum seekers who can either come here, or go back to their own country, where they're likely to be killed or oppressed? What are people's opinions on this?


It would be immoral to send them back - effectively it's a death sentence, isn't it?
lol Half you lot complain about how it's not that we pay too many benefits to unemployed people compared to average wages, it's that average wages are too low. Yet you don't seem to mind that wages have been driven down by an over saturated labour force.

You Guardianistas can't have it both ways.
Skilled labourers should be allowed in if they have a job to come to. Asylum seekers should be admitted on a case by case basis.

I also think that immigrants (barring asylum seekers) should have a certain level of English before being admitted for permanent residency. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to live somewhere, having to work, rent/buy a house, buy a car etc. without the native language. I'd say that asylum seekers should be deported to "safe" countries where they have the native language where possible. For instance, asylum seekers from Sub-Saharan Africa being taken to France.

I personally think that EU membership is a good thing but not sure about unlimited immigration from the Eurozone... that said I'm not an expert on the issue so not entirely sure :smile:
Reply 15
high immigration from poor countries = lower proportion of rich/skilled to poor/unskilled = higher tax burden on the wealthier/less money into public services. or: high immigration from any country = overcrowding the country = a beijing effect

in my opinion we should aim to have as much emigration as we do immigration and balance the numbers, and if that means having virtually no immigration - so be it. our goal shouldn't be to increase our population - if anything, it should be to decrease it. the number of people that have entered this country in the last decade is staggering. it's causing unemployment of the people who were here first and were born here; this isn't an ethnic argument, this is me saying that our people don't have a duty to sacrifice their job market for people wanting to live here. if they want to live here, they're going to need to prove that they're going to be a good contribution, not someone who is going to do the jobs that our youths should be doing for work experience. we should only be providing means for immigration if there is a sector that specifically is under-supplied and that should only go on a work-permit/temporary basis, because under supply isn't permanent. also, we should be using a strict skill point system based on how likely it is that a person is going to bring benefit to the country economically, e.g. not poor people, mostly. our nation state democracy should be based on serving our own people and voters, not people from other countries, and frankly, if you think I'm racist for saying this on the grounds that uncontrolled immigration is a strain on our welfare system, jobs and living space, then you're not worth anybody's time on here. it's a ridiculous notion to cry "racist" when there are logical reasons for things like borders and border control. if this is the case, then principally, we should be opening our doors to all countries and not have any limits - yeah, see how that turns out.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 16
Low wage workers are good for everyone. Even themselves, they're earning more here than they would elsewhere.
Reply 17
for every one immigrant that comes to the country, the EU gives us 10 euro's worth of parma ham
Reply 18
Original post by cant_think_of_name
Skilled labourers should be allowed in if they have a job to come to. Asylum seekers should be admitted on a case by case basis.

I also think that immigrants (barring asylum seekers) should have a certain level of English before being admitted for permanent residency. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to live somewhere, having to work, rent/buy a house, buy a car etc. without the native language. I'd say that asylum seekers should be deported to "safe" countries where they have the native language where possible. For instance, asylum seekers from Sub-Saharan Africa being taken to France.


The UK visa system is actually very harsh, you already need to have a good English level to be admitted either for family or work visa. I agree that it is actually more unfair on the immigrant himself if he cannot communicate efficiently. If a British person, however, is in a long term relationship with suppose an international student studying in the UK (they have to be living together for more than 2 years, share financial responsibilities and there are many other requirements involved), for the partner to be granted permission to stay after he/she graduates, they need to provide enough reasons as to why the couple could not move to the partner's home country. Being not able to speak the language is not considered a good reason making it is almost impossible for them to stay in the UK. I call this hypocrisy.. This is a link for the UKBA website if you want to know how it currently works http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/ . By making the visa system hard, the government is actually increasing the number of illegal immigrants, they can come on a tourist visa for example and overstay. The gov can't make the tourist visa harder because it is not profitable in the short term. This is the problem when immigration is seen as numbers, all this gov cares about is lessening the number people entering and increasing the number of people leaving, and that no matter who is leaving. If you are British and your partner is a foreigner they would rather see you leave just to make the figures look nice.
Many companies don't pay their taxes making it unfair for other competing ones especially small and medium businesses, in order for the latter to maintain their position they may end up employing illegal immigrants and thus making it even harder for the honest businesses. It s a cycle.. I mean here that nothing can stop illegal immigrants from coming here unless there are no jobs for them. I would rather see EU migrants or the foreign partner of a British person who is somewhat integrated, working legally here, paying taxes and everything, doing the jobs that illegal immigrants are doing now. If you start by tackling tax avoidance and make competition fairer, companies would have no excuse of hiring illegal immigrants. They will then have another more expensive but legal alternative to hire hard working foreigners in jobs where local people don't do.

On the asylum seeker issue, France accept much more asylum seekers than the UK. English is more spoken than French around the world, I think more co operations between hosting countries will be in the disadvantage of the UK.

Also, if you are non EU citizens, under the new system you cannot claim any sort of benefits.


Posted from TSR Mobile
What about race ? Culture ? language ? social cohesion ?

Why is only the economy important ?

Quick Reply

Latest