How some concerns about immigration are, well, a little bit racist

Out canvassing in South London this week, the issue of immigration came up time and again. One of the doors I knocked on was opened by a very polite, middle aged white woman, who, upon realising I was from the Labour Party, started with “I’m not racist but…” before launching into a pro-UKIP, anti-immigration tirade. I left her doorstep thinking that the line between the views she expressed and racism was a pretty fine one indeed. And this got me thinking about how fine the line is in general.

Now, to be clear, I am not suggesting for one moment that the three quarters of people who think immigration is too high are racist. Of course, most are not. But what I am suggesting is that some views on immigration veer dangerously close to prejudice and bigotry. And we shouldn’t be afraid to call these out.

There’s a lot of focus on the fact that people are concerned about immigration but far less on the reasons behind these concerns. These reasons vary considerably but I would argue can be divided roughly into three broad categories.

Firstly, people are worried about a lack of resources. They feel that we’re a small island, that there is not enough to go around and that we should look after our own first. This is the type of concern I hear expressed most frequently. It centres on issues like a lack of housing, migrants being seen to take jobs from or undercut British workers and the perceived burden migrants place on an overstretched NHS. Personally, I don’t agree with these concerns. I wont rehearse the many arguments why not here but disagree though I may, such anti immigration arguments are not prejudice, just practical. Justified or not, these are reasonable concerns to express.

Secondly, I hear concerns that migrants are taking advantage of our overly generous welfare system. There is a belief that the UK is a soft touch and that people come here to claim benefits and live off the state. It is of course wrong. Migrants are less than half as likely to claim benefits as UK nationals and the overwhelming majority come here wanting to work. Viewing migrants as work-shy when the evidence suggests otherwise is unfair and it could be argued a little bit prejudice.

Thirdly, there are concerns that immigrants are a threat to “our” way of life. The idea that people coming here should respect “our” religion and “our” customs I find problematic. It fails to recognise that there has been significant immigration since the second world war and that we are now a multi racial, multi cultural society. It falls into the same category as the view that migrants are somehow a threat to our safety. Farage’s comments yesterday that immigration stops children playing in the streets are in this vein. They play into a politics of fear and whip up prejudice. And it is not just UKIP. It is also the language employed by the far right. And it should not be tolerated.

It will be interesting to see which of these arguments are raised in Thursday’s debates and how the leaders respond. Some concerns about immigration are reasonable and whether or not you agree with them, they are a sensible basis on which to engage. Others are prejudice pure and simple and we should not be afraid to expose them as such.