EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

Although years of shouting it down as racist is probably part of what ended us up where we are today.

If there'd been a bit more openness and discussion then maybe people wouldn't have reacted the way they did when given a chance to vote on it.

It's OK saying that immigrants make a net contribution to society, but people find it hard to accept that when they are not working and some industries have a disproportionate amount of foreign labour.

This is particularly the case in unskilled labour:

In 2014,43% of workers in elementary process plant occupations (e.g. industry cleaning process occupation and packers, bottlers, canners and fillers), 33.6% in cleaning and housekeeping managers and supervisions, and 32.0% of workers process operatives (i.e food, drink and tobacco process; glass and ceramics process operatives; textile process operatives; chemical and related process operatives; rubber and plastic process operatives; metal making and treating process and electroplaters) were foreign-born.

Of those 43%, 19% are migrants who've arrived in the past 5 years. It's easy to see why people have concerns.

There are obviously bigger issues at play, enforcement of the minimum wage for one, but just suggesting that restricting immigration is backwards and racist is part of the reason we're fucked now.