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In the two preceding articles (1, 2), I have written about the frames through which most of our white UK interviewees see immigration. They are typical of white UK demography in that they live in local areas with few BME residents. They feel that resources go unfairly to migrants (and other ethnic minorities) who are not entitled to access them because they have not paid enough contributions. Political parties are part of the political discourse on immigration summarized in the previous articles, which pushes public understandings in one particular direction: immigration is a problem to be managed or resolved.
The frames through which immigration is engaged with; unfairness, political correctness gone mad, integration and repressed Englishness, generate a set of viewpoints that produces white UK people as a beleaguered minority requiring remedial state actions to restore fairness. Until quite recently, this last point used to be the exclusive province of far-right populist parties, but now seems to be a recognisable feature of the mainstream political landscape. This is a harmful trend, making it likely that immigration becomes an increasingly divisive and emotive issue in the future.
