Britain Split: How immigration is changing life where you live

Local TV

New data and local experiences suggest immigration is affecting housing, employment, and public services, while migrant workers remain essential to many sectors. The debate is shaping daily life across the country and in individual communities.

Transcript

00:00Recent protests have pushed the issue of immigration back into the national spotlight.

00:06A new polling from Ipsos shows how sharply opinions are split.

00:11The survey of 2,451 adults suggests 85% believe the country feels divided.

00:20Immigration or the migration of people, it's been going on for as long as humanity has been on this planet.

00:26We move about, but quite clearly we have a situation where borders become more important,

00:32and particularly so after Brexit, which is about securing the borders.

00:36Now the fact is, of course, that we get people coming in on boats on a regular basis,

00:41and indeed over the summer there were some days when there were over 1,000 people coming each day.

00:45You don't have to be a genius in maths to work out. That's a lot of people.

00:50Ipsos found that almost half of those surveyed on immigration

00:54feel it has had a negative impact on the UK overall,

00:58with 48% raising concerns about pressure on the NHS and other public services.

01:06Housing worries were also significant.

01:0962% said immigration has made homes harder to find,

01:14and concerns about employment were highest.

01:17Now, of course, migration is a good thing.

01:19It brings lots of different cultures and skills and expertise and whatever else,

01:23and we are a rich and diverse society.

01:25But undoubtedly, where you get it concentrated in certain areas,

01:29there are pressures that come on the local amenities, housing, hospitals, education,

01:35all the sort of things which are struggling to cope anyway.

01:38The fact that more people are coming in to consume these services is a problem.

01:42And, of course, this requires greater taxation.

01:44There's then another issue, the sort of people that we bring in,

01:47are they going to be net contributors?

01:49Now, of course, if you bring in somebody who's going to be a computer engineer,

01:52being paid maybe $100,000 a year, for example,

01:55there's no doubt they are going to sort of contribute sort of immensely.

01:58But if you bring in somebody in on sort of a low wage to sort of work in the care system,

02:02it's a big problem, and it dominates the sort of the headlines.

02:06And, indeed, I think it's going to be a major sort of electoral issue

02:08at the sort of the next general election,

02:12because, of course, a certain sort of reform party claim that they're going to solve this problem.

02:16But there is no doubt in the last number of years,

02:19immigration has sort of gone up very dramatically

02:23without sort of little sort of preparation for the consequences this has for the existing society.

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