Our readers' thoughts on immigration 💭

Welcome to openDemocracy's weekly reader comments round-up. We receive so many carefully considered messages about our work that it seems a shame to keep them to ourselves. Send us your thoughts for next week's round-up by replying directly to any of our emails or commenting on our articles or Instagram posts.

 

These comments are edited for clarity, accuracy and length, and aren't necessarily a reflection of openDemocracy's editorial position.

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Re: Ghana and Trump are bargaining with lives. Ghanaians are pushing back

If as much effort were put into preventing conflict and providing security, immigration wouldn't be such a fierce necessity! –Moira via our website

I just wanted to say how sickened I was by your article (nothing to do with the article, but quite a lot to do with our present governments, which are too uncaring to appreciate immigrants). 

You could say I was an immigrant myself, as a Brit living in France. The difference, I suppose, is that my skin is white and I am, on the surface anyway, an old lady, so nobody notices me. Thus, I miss the daily struggles of being 'different'.

I do try to keep up with what is going on in the world but I am still constantly horrified at our inhumanity to immigrants, and your article reinforces that. Please thank your writers for their part in the article. The treatment of immigrants shows such a lack of understanding of the lives they live and what has driven them to move, especially when most of them would have chosen to stay at home if their circumstances had been different. It also shows a cruelty that appals me. Can I also say how much I appreciate openDemocracy, and I hope you will continue to write and publish these articles. –Doreen via email

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Re: Weekly Newsletter: What are your thoughts on immigration?

No immigration, no growth. It's good to be different. –Dennis via email

The UK must honour all of its international legal obligations regarding both immigrants and refugees, regardless of how they arrive here. In particular, the UK must prioritise and expedite the asylum process by providing processing centres in France and by allocating sufficient resources to deliver timely decisions.

The UK should work closely with other countries, particularly the EU, to determine how international legal obligations must develop, particularly in the context of global warming and easier travel. It may be that in the future we have to harden our hearts to a degree, and if this has to happen, it should be by measured response and international agreement, not hysteria and unilateral action. 

Substantial resources should be allocated to educate people of all ages in the UK about the real extent and impact of immigration, its value, its historical imperial context, and its current economic context. More resources should also be allocated to integrate new asylum seekers. Labour, Conservative, and Lib Dem politicians should start being honest about UK immigration by explaining its historical context and current economic inevitability. But also recognising, taking seriously, and addressing societal concerns head-on rather than pretending that they do not exist or dismissing them as racism – to their, and our, peril. –Neil Maybin via email

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I think I am in a toxic society. I believe fascism is on the rise and is not being challenged in so-called democracies across the globe. However, whenever racism rears its ugly head in the UK, there is much evidence that many people find this totally unacceptable. The problem is that the media focuses more on the racist behaviours making the problem far worse. And many people are afraid to challenge racists for fear of violent responses.

The past government made the situation worse but the current government (for which I voted) is impotent at best and proactive at worst; fanning the flames of racism rather than extinguishing them, and barely calling out racism, which they often confuse with religious prejudice.

I do not envisage any improvement whilst the government and media bang on all the time about immigration, making people believe immigration is evil and destructive, rather than a constant, healthy feature of our society. –Jacqui via email

I love people, I loathe and despise xenophobia. I welcome anyone, from anywhere, who wants to come here. (Well, not dangerous and violent criminals, we've enough of those of our own, but otherwise, anyone from anywhere.) People are OK, wherever they're from, and although we haven't always treated immigrants kindly, we've depended heavily on them ever since these islands were first populated at all – a historical truth; you can look it up!

Moreover, none of these xenophobes appears to have any notion of how we're to keep the UK going as a viable, workable country, which I presume they want to do, when our population is ageing and our birth rate continues to fall. We've been unable to maintain the level of our own population since 1972. So, failing migration, our country would rapidly be emptying; a ghost nation rather than just a ghost town.

I email Nigel Farage and those like him, and beg them to tell me how these problems (ageing population and falling native birth rate) are to be resolved, to keep the UK going. Not one of them has yet even acknowledged my emails, never mind replied.  They're scaremongering to boost their own wishful thinking: the fact that they're talking and writing utter nonsensical rubbish seems to bother them not a whit. –Val via email

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