NinjaFletch
Full Member
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2009
- Messages
- 19,818
How does that respond to @Don't Kill Bill argument? Imo he is spot on.
In total (for the whole country) immigration is a net-positive, but for certain segments of society it is detrimental. It is fairly cynical to tell these people, that they have to shut up and take it, because it is "good for society". By no means does this justify the claims of the Brexit campaign, but it also means, that not everybody who is against immigration, is a racist. The immigrants (except those that are rich) don´t move to (upper) middle class neighbourhoods and compete with engineers or lawyers. They compete with low skilled workers for jobs and move to their areas.
The contempt that is lately shown towards parts of the (low-income)middle and working-class, because they don´t vote like the mainstream likes it, is quite mindboggling. I kind of expect that from conservatives, but not from the center-left......It pushes them toward extremists on both sides of the spectrum.
Thing is though it wasn't just those areas that voted to leave. The highest Leave vote was Boston who have legitimate reasons to have problems with immigration but thats an exception to the general rule which was middle-class, rural and suburban England carrying the vote. Even working class areas that voted out (such as the North East and South Wales) are the working class areas with the lowest levels of immigration.
So, whilst its obviously not correct to say that nobody had legitimate fears in regards to immigration, to deny that xenophobia and racism had any role whatsoever (consciously or subconsciously) is as equally incorrect. And tbh the fact that the country has had unashamedly racist propaganda blasted at it from the Daily Mail on a, well, daily basis makes that unsurprising.