Slate: “Why Immigration Pushed Britons to Brexit”

Last week voters in England and Wales choose to leave the European Union in a nationwide referendum commonly referred to as the “Brexit” vote, with many voters claiming immigration fears as a top decider for them. The aftershocks of this referendum have been far reaching. In response, Prime Minister David Cameron, who opposed Brexit, offered his resignation, the Labour party is in turmoil, Britain’s credit rating has been downgraded, the British pound fell to a thirty-one year low against the dollar, the euro fell, and global stock prices have plummeted.

Many are offering their views on what exactly caused so many voters to want out of the European Union when many economists and financial leaders warned that it would not be a prudent move. Slate examines former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s role in opening up Britain’s borders to immigrants beginning in the late 1990s. Britain soon received roughly twice as many immigrants in the United Kingdom as had arrived in the previous half-century. Britain additionally become a highly sought-after destination for less-skilled European immigrants, due to the structure of the UK’s economy and its public policies, as well as the free movement of peoples, one of the core principles of the European Union. This, combined with loss of economic opportunity in many areas of the United Kingdom and the availability of public benefits for many recent immigrants, fueled an anti-immigrant backlash.

Many Leave campaigners, including Boris Johnson, the former London mayor, claimed that the EU was preventing the UK from enacting immigration controls. In the run-up to the vote, however, London’s new mayor, Sadiq Khan, who was for the Remain campaign, objected to the scapegoating of immigrants and said of his Leave opponents that it wasn’t so much “project fear, it’s been project hate as far as immigration is concerned.”

Tony Blair weighed in post-Brexit vote, acknowledging the role that high immigration numbers played, but framed it slightly differently:

The strains within Britain that led to this referendum result are universal, at least in the West. Insurgent movements of left and right, posing as standard-bearers of a popular revolt against the political establishment, can spread and grow at scale and speed. Today’s polarized and fragmented news coverage only encourages such insurgencies — an effect magnified many times by the social media revolution.

While the Leave campaigners promised to swiftly reduce the number of immigrants coming to Britain from other parts of Europe, with claims that  a vote to leave would “bring down the numbers” by 2020, afterwards, however, the Leave campaigners adjusted their remarks: “Frankly, if people watching think that they have voted and there is now going to be zero immigration from the E.U., they are going to be disappointed,” Daniel Hannan, a prominent Leave advocate and member of the European Parliament, admits now.  

The Brexit vote has already given rise to an increase in xenophobia and reports of abuse against immigrants. Meanwhile, many eligible UK nationals, unsure of what lies ahead for the United Kingdom, are busy applying for duel citizenship.   

Both Sides of Brexit

Marketplace: “Immigration a concern amid looming Brexit vote”

On June 23, the United Kingdom will hold a referendum—referred to as the “Brexit” vote—to decide whether Britain should leave or remain in the European Union (EU). The referendum comes after Prime Minister David Cameron bowed to pressure from his own Conservative MPs before his general election last year and said: "It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time to settle this European question in British politics."

Immigration is an important issue in the referendum, as the EU guarantees the free movement of people between the twenty-eight member countries. Many Brits are worried about the record influx of immigrants who have come to the UK. Last year, there was a net inflow into the UK of more than 330,000 immigrants with half of them from elsewhere in the EU. Elisa Padilla from Spain, who has lived in London for three years, is concerned about the EU referendum. “It is a bit scary,” she tells Marketplace, “because underneath it all, I feel there is some sort of rejection of immigrants. English people don’t want more people from abroad coming here.”

While some claim that immigrants are affecting public services like healthcare, education, and housing, Italian immigrant Daniela de Rosa, who runs an Anglo-Italian website, is surprised by the referendum. “I wouldn’t have believed when I moved to London eleven years ago that one day someone would question our staying in Britain—as Europeans,” de Rosa tells Marketplace.

Deporting the 2 million EU migrant workers already in the UK wouldn’t make economic sense since they pay more in taxes than they take from the government and many dispute their supposed drain on resources. Michal Zdunczyk, a printing equipment engineer from Poland, disputes the charge that EU migrants are putting Brits out of work. “We basically fill the gap where the British people will not accept those jobs for that kind of money,” Zdunczyk tells Marketplace.

Gisela Stuart, a Labour MP and Vote Leave chair, says that British people are feeling the strains of “uncontrolled migration” and should vote leave in order to take back control from the EU. “As an immigrant myself, I am conscious of benefits immigration brings to this country," she says in the Guardian. "I have been very clear that I would like to see the introduction of an Australian Points based system—something that would also serve to end the discrimination inherent in the current system. But the fact of the matter is that the democratically elected UK parliament is prevented from doing any such thing because of the EU’s obsession with open borders.”

Prime Minister David Cameron claims it would be “madness” to try to reduce the number of migrants to the UK by voting to leave the EU and Hilary Benn, the UK shadow foreign secretary, says that a vote to leave the EU will not put a stop to the high levels of immigration, as foreign workers are needed in the country. “Immigration into Britain will continue whether we stay or go, as the Leave Campaign have now admitted,” he says. “And anyone who thinks that voting leave will bring the numbers down significantly will in time be bitterly disappointed.”

While many view the Leave Campaign as anti-immigrant, support for Brexit comes from many unusual sources including many chefs and curry house owners, predominantly from Bangladesh, who want to leave the EU since they claim current immigration laws and EU-mandated salary requirements make it extremely difficult for them to hire the skilled workers for their restaurants. Four or five of Britain's 12,000 curry houses are closing their doors every week, says Oli Khan, vice president of the Bangladeshi Caterers Association. "It's not that we think Europeans shouldn't have a chance in Britain, it's just that we feel the country should choose who it needs, what kind of skills they need, so that industries like ours are not short handed," Khan tells CNN. Meanwhile, the rest of the EU waits nervously for the outcome.

New York Times: "EU Court: Homosexuality Can Be Grounds for Asylum"

The New York Times reports that the top court of the European Union has decided refugees facing imprisonment in their home country because they are gay might on a case by case basis be granted asylum:

The existence of laws allowing the imprisonment of homosexuals "may constitute an act of persecution per se," if they are routinely enforced, the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice said.

A homosexual cannot be expected to conceal his sexual orientation in his home country to avoid persecution since that would amount to renouncing a "characteristic fundamental to a person's identity," the EU court added.

Meanwhile, ABC News reports on asylum seekers to the US who have obtained asylum due to anti-gay persecution they faced in their home countries. One of these is Oliver from Nigeria, who was at one point locked inside a church in Nigeria with angry mobs outside. "'It was horrifying,' he said. 'I wanted to kill myself.'"