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Comment on Home secretary to make some migrants wait 10 years or more for right to settle in UK

I often wonder if the EU and the UK are facing the same immigrant hate, for the same reasons, I see in America. I’d value UK opinions!

People scream “Racism!” at every mention of immigrant hate, but I find there’s more to unpack. Consider what a citizen, young or old, is experiencing. Seems like every metric across the board is getting worse, has been for nearly 20-years. If you’re not watching the numbers, at the very least you can feel this downturn, experience it.

If you’re old, you remember very different demographics; most people looked and talked like you and your cohort. They had pronounceable names like Cholmondeley and Featherstonehaugh! If you’re young, you have a clear sense that this ain’t right, dad and grandpappy and great-grandpappy had it better. They could at the least get fair wages and any man who wanted to work or own a home could do so. What has happened to my country?!

You look around and what do you see? Loads more brown people with funny accents and names is what. Your mass media (Fox News in the US) and social media (mostly a curated FB feed) are telling you brown immigrants are the problem. Compound that with flat-out lies, “Illegals get government benefits!” and “They’re uncommonly criminal!” and you can see how easy this is to believe, even if you didn’t start out from a racist standpoint.

Anyway, I find racism a facile answer to a complicated issue. Scream all ya like, and you’ll fall largely on target, but not for the reasons you think and “Racism!” doesn’t address the demographic, social and political changes and who is taking the heat for those changes. (Note: All of this is a large part of Trump’s election and reelection.)

Brits? Hit me!

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DakRalter@thelemmy.club ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It’s very simple. The wealth hoarders are pointing in the other direction. “Look over there! It’s brown people’s fault!” And the media parrot it and too many people fall for it.

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- shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Agreed! I’m merely pointing out the reasons that finger pointing is working so well.
  
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- mlcgdrhu@sopuli.xyz ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The wealth hoarders are the ones driving rampant legal migration. How can’t you see that?
  
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  - shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I have no idea what you mean. ?
    
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    mlcgdrhu@sopuli.xyz ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I wasn’t talking to you… Read through the context of this thread and who I was replying to.
    
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mlcgdrhu@sopuli.xyz ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Opinion on what? Immigration?

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- shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  As to why immigrants as so hated. Did British demographics face similar changes over the past few decades? Did opportunity crash out as in America?
  
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  - mlcgdrhu@sopuli.xyz ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Right. You wrote multiple paragraphs without actually asking what you wanted our opinion on. Immigrants aren’t hated. They’re doing what anyone in their position would try to do: to better their lives. It’s the governments of the past decades that are hated. The British public never voted for huge levels of migration, quote the opposite. The government serves itself and not the people. Companies and billionaires also benefit from high levels of immigration.
    
    You could check census data for demographic change as you’d want factual data not anecdotal.
    
    No idea what a crash out is.
    
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    shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Ah! I got the impression from across the Pond that Brits were resisting immigrants. So it’s the fact of it and the not actual people?
    
    I have looked at census data for America, definitely more brown people. I’m also going from personal observations. When I moved to Florida 20 years ago, I was kinda freaked out by the lack of Hispanics. Now they’re as common as most anywhere. I’m asking if immigration has also increased in Britain.
    
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