@Scalenex , this video/topic is adjacent to your thread's original focus, are you okay with a greater focus on Europe as a whole on this thread, or would you prefer that this thread focus on the UK specifically and that I create a thread of my own?
Either way is fine, I guess. Immigration is complex enough it's probably worth it's own topic.
I'm not sure I'll participate. It's not that I don't care about immigration, it's that I've beaten this topic to death on other websites I frequent.
I thought maybe the UK was separate from the rest of Europe because I was under the impression that the whole impetus behind Brexit was stemming immigration but nothing substantial happened on that front since then.
Perhaps it's an oversimplification but I am of the opinion that if immigrants assimilate into the culture and values of their host country, a country can absorb an almost infinite number of immigrants. If immigrants don't assimilate, even a small amount of immigrants will cause huge problems.
In the 21st century. Pushing assimilation is called "racist" or "colonialist" or some other "ist".
The elephant in the room no one wants to talk about is that the native birthrate in First World countries has dropped below the rate of replacement. And this trend is showing no sign of reversing.
First World countries have some form of welfare state or pension system that requires a constant stream of new young workers to support the old. Immigrants are better than nothing, but they don't support the system as much as native born workers do.
In order to stem immigration, a country either has to drastically cut the welfare state (which is politically untenable) or force people to have more babies (which is morally untenable).
There are other factors in play, but I think this the biggest one. It applies to the United States, the UK, Canada, South Korea, Japan, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and many other countries. Even Second World countries have this problem, but it manifests different and frankly, they have bigger problems.
I believe there is a socialist fueled movement in academia which has spread to the media and politicians that believes that the West deserves to die, as a culture.
It gets a little tin foil hat, but I don't believe there is some evil cabal of conspirators plotting this, I just think a lot of people don't think the long-term ramifications of their ideologies.
On a more short-term basis. In Democracies, a majority of voters emulate the political beliefs of their parents, at least at first. In most First World countries, the Left has fewer babies than the Right, so it feels like politicians pushing for more immigration is a backhanded way to import more voters for their side.
It can go both ways. Defectors from communist regimes tend to vote Right. In America at least, Cuban Americans have a strong tendency to vote Republican and it's noted that Obama and Biden have passed executive orders to make it harder for Cubans to immigrate.
It's a little late now, but I wish America (and the UK) worked harder to let Hong Kongers emigrate out after the CCP cracked down on freedoms there. Little by little, the CCP is making it harder for their citizens to emigrate out.
East Asian immigrants fleeing communism such as Chinese and Cambodian also lean Right, but not as strongly as Cubans. In America at least, a lower percentage of Asian Americans vote in elections than other demographics.