Immigration appears to be more of a concern for people where there hasn't been a significant recent rapid demographic change, and have little or no direct experience of recent migrants. Those who have personal experience of immigrants are generally less concerned (because they see them every day and know they're people just like us and not a load of criminals and scroungers).
Immigration appears to be more of a concern for people where there hasn't been a significant recent rapid demographic change, and have little or no direct experience of recent migrants. Those who have personal experience of immigrants are generally less concerned (because they see them every day and know they're people just like us and not a load of criminals and scroungers).
I’m afraid that is not my experience of living in Luton where less than a third of the population are White British https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luton. My immigrant friends in my 1970s and 1980s childhood (Indian Muslim best friend, Ugandan Hindu friendship group) were subjected to racist abuse on a daily basis, and I was abused for being a white girl associating with them, and the mosque regularly had a pig’s head placed on it. It was also the home of Tommy Robinson and the English Defence League. It is also a very deprived area - the early 1990s riots were on the estate I was brought up on, Marsh Farm.
Immigration appears to be more of a concern for people where there hasn't been a significant recent rapid demographic change, and have little or no direct experience of recent migrants. Those who have personal experience of immigrants are generally less concerned (because they see them every day and know they're people just like us and not a load of criminals and scroungers).
The experience in Lincolnshire, in Boston and Spalding and the like, suggests it's a bit more complex than that. Now, a lot of these places have also been C/conservative for decades, so when significant numbers of Eastern European migrants showed up they were primed to object, even though those same migrants breathed live into communities that had been struggling. Add in austerity so that the influx of newcomers coincided with the deterioration in public services and you have a toxic brew.
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The experience in Lincolnshire, in Boston and Spalding and the like, suggests it's a bit more complex than that. Now, a lot of these places have also been C/conservative for decades, so when significant numbers of Eastern European migrants showed up they were primed to object, even though those same migrants breathed live into communities that had been struggling. Add in austerity so that the influx of newcomers coincided with the deterioration in public services and you have a toxic brew.