I’ve actually written lots of reports on immigration without mentioning race, because most immigration, usually uncontrolled, is actually internal to the country.
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That’s absolutely fine but doesn’t negate anything in my post if it was supposed to.
Opinions are like assholes. Everyone’s got one. Sadly some stink.
Thank you so much, you’ve just entirely proved my point.
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Anyone who starts a sentence with ‘I’m not racist, but…’ is about to say something racist. As sure as the sun sets in the west. It’s inevitable.
I’ve never had to say ‘I’m not racist, but…’ because I’ve never felt compelled to express an opinion that I knew, deep down, was a probably bit racist.
Nor have I ever suffered from the breezy, privileged self-confidence to assume that just because I declare myself not to be racist, then no accusations of racism can be thrown my way.
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I’m no racist but I’m very concerned about the effects of mass immigration on the country’s resources, I don’t think we have the infra-structure and support-network to cope with it at the present time.
There, I’ve just exposed myself as a racist. At least to you and Noo_Noo anyway.
You can’t choose both, they’re coming for you now 
What irony is there? I don’t have any moral superiority, I just find many values and positions that people hold distasteful. For example, I find it distasteful that some believe that just because there were people who were promoting the story about antisemitism in the left-wing movements that Corbyn came from, it means that it wasn’t a problem at all. Because there was very much a problem, especially with that common trope of Jews controlling the world.
I find it distasteful that people who have benefitted from a system that has promoted good outcomes for the majority of people would seek to destroy it, pull up the ladder behind them.
For starters, have a gander at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0267323116669456 for how news coverage affects attitudes.
The Migration Observatory have also compiled some data on the asylum claims backlog (The UK’s asylum backlog - Migration Observatory - The Migration Observatory) where you can see how despite applications remaining fairly constant between 2015 and 2020, the backlog kept increasing.
This coverage of the Leveson report, which I was not aware of before, points out how this sensationalism was noted in the report, and this was in 2012.
From silence to sensationalism on the migrant crisis | Peter Preston | The Guardian – not a rigorous study, but shows examples. There was one I read which reviewed how often immigration, particularly refugees, was covered in the news over the years, but I don’t really have the time to dig it out.
Source: How the Tory war on immigration backfired | Immigration and asylum | The Guardian
Re-read my post. I specifically said the rags themselves were doing that, not the people who read them. But it’s also casual racism to equate “brown” and “Muslim”.
The relevance of this is analogous here. How often do you see “they just don’t fit” trotted out as an argument here? There are legitimate concerns about immigration, they just aren’t the salient ones being used all the time. The problems with immigration that most people complain about, such as integration, cost, etc. are a function of the political system and the way it has set the country’s immigration system up, not immigration in and of itself.
This is connected to the next point.
I am very disdainful of “lived experience”, which is why I put that in there. I also happen to not live in an area where the right-wing rags are anywhere close to being popular. The Conservatives are often just a tiny minority, let alone the laughable attempts of the neo-Nazis to make any entrance.
Look at the demographics of the support for anti-immigration policies. They are quite clear. Just because there are some ethnic minorities who support such policies, doesn’t make the support for such policies dominated by racists, and people who are misinformed by the rags and their social networks (generically, not limited social media platforms).
No shit? It’s like saying that all people who have concerns about wealth concentration are poor, or that all people who have concerns about taxation of the wealthy are rich? There will always be exceptions to the rule.
The whole “I’m not a racist but…” thing has crept in because normal, non-racist people know full-well the moment they voice an opinion that differs from certain other people’s opinions they will be labelled a racist regardless of how reasonable that opinion is.
Until that 2nd group of people accept other people’s opinions might have some merit without instantly dismissing it as racist then things will never change and we’ll keep going round in circles.
Such effects are overblown. You should be more concerned about the effects of an ineffective immigration system on the abilities of these immigrants to actually contribute to the country, and the infrastructure and support network you’re referring to.
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No. They get labelled a racist (mostly) because they are expressing a racist opinion, even if they don’t realise it.
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That is generally true but I would challenge your assertion such effects are overblown.
Sadly people like Noo_Noo prove this to be untrue.
@Noo_Noo didn’t call you a racist?
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Not really
Nope.
Why?
As far as I’m aware, the bulk of the immigration into the country is skilled labour, which generally results in tax contributions and doing the jobs that the country has a shortage of?
Austerity and the thieving that’s resulted from that has had vastly larger an impact than immigration.
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Reasonable arguments don’t need that preface. If someone is completely that there is a shortage of affordable housing, or not enough school places, or a lack of GPs then those are quite possibly related to migration patterns. However, that is not related to the race of those migrants or where they have migrated from.
Remember that most migration is internal to the country.
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Hardly,
My point is that opinions vary, some wildly so and sadly many are formulated on some really poor information or worse still, down right lies.
That doesnt make someone racist, more misinformed.
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Don’t be so naive. The country’s fucked because of a few thousand people who arrive in rubber dinghies every year, not forty-five years of failed neoliberal economics.
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