When public opinion is against something you’re for, you’re always going to be on the defensive.
We need more integration. We need more immigrants marrying locals; we need more mixed housing estates; we need more native-born citizens who are friends with immigrants. We need immigrants at the local pub quiz heckling the quizmaster and getting a laugh. That, to me, is the only way to dispel the gut feeling of xenophobia that many people have. You can’t get rid of it by talking about economic benefits; you can’t get rid of it by saying that the far-right agenda amounts to concentration camps for immigrants; you can’t get rid of it by saying it’s the only way to support an aging population. It doesn’t matter if these things are true, because truth just doesn’t beat gut instincts.
You can try to change narratives with policy: you can favour media which has rich representation of diverse people. You can talk about the positive roles of people like doctors in the health service, and care assistants, who are already here doing important jobs. You can also make more direct policies, like language requirements on legal migrants (because you’re more likely to make friends with locals if you already speak the language), for example.
But if you do all of this and people still think migration is too high, then it’s probably time to take action to reduce migration. Contrary to the article, people don’t dislike migration just because they’ve been told to. People dislike it because it’s change and people don’t like change, and because a lot of people are just a bit xenophobic. Not so much that they can’t get over it, but enough that they don’t need Farage to tell them they don’t like migration.
In the UK there’s a few things the country could be doing to change the narrative, but the fact remains that net migration is in the 100s of thousands, unequally distributed around a population of about 65 million. It only went above 100,000 in 1998, and was around 0 for decades before that. So it’s historically high, so it shouldn’t really be surprising that people don’t like it.
Do you know how difficult they make it for locals who want to marry immigrants? It’s so immoral I don’t know why more people aren’t outraged about it. I feel like the attitude is like “well that’s what you should expect for falling in love with an immigrant”
If you fall in love with an immigrant, presumably they already have a visa (or ILR, or citizenship, or whatever) and so don’t need to pass any extra checks for spousal visa.
I guess you’re talking about foreign nationals who aren’t currently immigrants. That’s not really what I’m talking about, because they could be (and in fact by and large will be) the spouses of current immigrants, rather than the native-born. So encouraging their migration does not have the effect of encouraging the bridging of the native and immigrant populations. Indeed, it more does the opposite: it would mean encouragement to people considering a work visa in the UK who already have a family which they might want to bring with them, rather than single people who might find a partner here and start a family with them.
OK, but the situations where someone has immigrated to the UK on some basis, then ceases to be eligible to remain in the UK, are less frequent than cases where someone might immigrate to the UK and wish to bring existing family with them.
It is. Just to check, it’s the British citizen who needs to be earning £29k? Your above comment makes it sound like that is the case, but earlier you said:
You need to be earning at least £29k before they’d even consider giving you a visa
Which suggests it’s the immigrant who needs to be earning that much.
When public opinion is against something you’re for, you’re always going to be on the defensive.
We need more integration. We need more immigrants marrying locals; we need more mixed housing estates; we need more native-born citizens who are friends with immigrants. We need immigrants at the local pub quiz heckling the quizmaster and getting a laugh. That, to me, is the only way to dispel the gut feeling of xenophobia that many people have. You can’t get rid of it by talking about economic benefits; you can’t get rid of it by saying that the far-right agenda amounts to concentration camps for immigrants; you can’t get rid of it by saying it’s the only way to support an aging population. It doesn’t matter if these things are true, because truth just doesn’t beat gut instincts.
You can try to change narratives with policy: you can favour media which has rich representation of diverse people. You can talk about the positive roles of people like doctors in the health service, and care assistants, who are already here doing important jobs. You can also make more direct policies, like language requirements on legal migrants (because you’re more likely to make friends with locals if you already speak the language), for example.
But if you do all of this and people still think migration is too high, then it’s probably time to take action to reduce migration. Contrary to the article, people don’t dislike migration just because they’ve been told to. People dislike it because it’s change and people don’t like change, and because a lot of people are just a bit xenophobic. Not so much that they can’t get over it, but enough that they don’t need Farage to tell them they don’t like migration.
In the UK there’s a few things the country could be doing to change the narrative, but the fact remains that net migration is in the 100s of thousands, unequally distributed around a population of about 65 million. It only went above 100,000 in 1998, and was around 0 for decades before that. So it’s historically high, so it shouldn’t really be surprising that people don’t like it.
Do you know how difficult they make it for locals who want to marry immigrants? It’s so immoral I don’t know why more people aren’t outraged about it. I feel like the attitude is like “well that’s what you should expect for falling in love with an immigrant”
No? I know a number of married British-non-British couples and none have mentioned it. Who’s “they” and how do they make it difficult?
The Home Office. You need to be earning at least £29k before they’d even consider giving you a visa
If you fall in love with an immigrant, presumably they already have a visa (or ILR, or citizenship, or whatever) and so don’t need to pass any extra checks for spousal visa.
I guess you’re talking about foreign nationals who aren’t currently immigrants. That’s not really what I’m talking about, because they could be (and in fact by and large will be) the spouses of current immigrants, rather than the native-born. So encouraging their migration does not have the effect of encouraging the bridging of the native and immigrant populations. Indeed, it more does the opposite: it would mean encouragement to people considering a work visa in the UK who already have a family which they might want to bring with them, rather than single people who might find a partner here and start a family with them.
No, the visa can expire and then they’re forced to move back to the other side of the continent
OK, but the situations where someone has immigrated to the UK on some basis, then ceases to be eligible to remain in the UK, are less frequent than cases where someone might immigrate to the UK and wish to bring existing family with them.
A £29k per year threshold for a British citizen to be with their non British spouse is insane and immoral
Well, I’m not convinced.
By the way, how would you find it if the rule only applied to relationships between two non-citizens?
It is. Just to check, it’s the British citizen who needs to be earning £29k? Your above comment makes it sound like that is the case, but earlier you said:
Which suggests it’s the immigrant who needs to be earning that much.