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If you haven't read, it 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari has a chapter on immigration/migration.
He breaks down three conditions / terms which effectively govern the social contract with immigrants, which then feeds into the debate. It's worth reading as an interesting way to unpack the different view points.
hugo7-
https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/08/06/anti-immigration-like-pro-immigration-is-a-legitimate-political-position nice summary here.
Yes it is of course more complex, but the quality of the debate combined with a total lack of data annoys me greatly. Raising issues is fine, you see the EU nationals in the UK and UK nationals in the EU forming charities now that rights are threatened.
They point it out from their POV (I can't vote anymore now...this settled status is not great for me) others point it out from their POV, ok, with a good moderator and data we can all try to work something out.
Poland BTW is letting in people from the Phillipines cos they are Catholic. You could say this is for integration, but since the party in power atm is in bed with the Catholic Church, perhaps it rather is about control...
JWestland
I am always a bit baffled by this "cultural cohesion".
Want want to all know our neighbours and the whole street? Yes, you can... one Belfast street near where I used to live in a rundown part of the city was kept together by 3 grannies who were super happy with having 8 nationalities and everybody watched each other.
With 8 nationalities. In a mostly white area, which is now getting a lot of people from the Carribean. And one that has serious racism problems 10 years ago and turned it around. And it's pretty poor with housing issues. But, the local community group who fights their heart out for GPs/housing decided it had enough and that is now what the area is.
Those feelings also live in the Netherlands, but there are places where people have reached out and it turns out "the others" are just...people.
You are right it is about feelings, but I don't find the whole anti immigration discussion in the UK very productive. It is more about stoking more unhelpful feelings.
And one man a few years ago voted Brexit, but he reached out to the EU citizens in the town. He just didn't want "any more" as "it is now all Polish people". So, to me, it seemed the "local born" go and never come back.
I don't see how locking the door is going to fix that. Though I can understand it must be strange to see a city change that much, so having conversations is fine. But what is the anti freedom of movement bringing to the table? To use an extreme example, maybe the town will just be empty and nobody will come once "the door is shut". Do they take that into account? The discussion seems just stuck on a political level.