I completely agree regarding immigrants unlikely to be the issues facing the country. Unfortunately, here, a lot of people have been convinced that immigrants can come here, and sit at home receiving benefits (whilst taking their jobs at the same time), and get all the biggest and best houses. Because, that sort of twaddle is constantly being told to them, and they just believe it.

I have seen it first hand, with multiple family members, and many others.

And when there is something that does involve an immigrant, it is generally blown all out of proportion compared to if a local is the perpetrator, so they can say "Look, told you!"

Of course, the people here fell for it all hook, line, and sinker, and left the EU.

@tinadrin question for you about the UK vs. the US.  Is there widespread perception of a problem of "homegrown depravity"?  In the US, there is.  

Here in the US, when we imagine the trashiest parts of the country/the trashiest neighborhoods, one of two things comes to mind:

1)  Inner cities, largely populated by Black people most of whom are descendants of slaves and have been in the United States their entire lives, and

2)  Rural areas, largely populated by White people most of whom have also been in the United States their entire lives.

To be clear, the fears of those parts of the country are excessive and often a form of bigotry themselves. However, it seems ludicrous in the United States to blame immigrants for crime/drugs/culture of not caring about school, when there is clearly a culture of Americans doing a fine job of ruining our own lives without outside assistance.

@AspieAlly613 There are a lot of perceptions in the UK (or at least England, where I have spent the majority of my life) about different regions, or counties, or even towns. For example, my town is in a "council borough" with a neighbouring town, but many residents of my town won't go to the other town unless absolutely necessary because it is "trashy", "crime ridden", and dirty.

Another nearby town (a larger, junction town on the trainline), someone was telling me yesterday at my autism group that they won't go to that town (we have some activities go on there), for similar reasons, it is full of crime, anti-social behaviour, etc.

And there is a generally sentiment regarding the north-south divide, where there seem to be large swathes of people who have a lot of negative perceptions of the other.

But more and more, it is all being blamed on immigrants, refugees, and largely anybody that is non-white or not a fluent English speaker (or anyone who is not Christian, as I had to endure a rant about that yesterday, but that would mean I should also be deported as I am not).

The trouble is, a lot of people seem to see everything in black and white. The trouble with the police and NHS, and other things here is not due to immigration, but due to constant spending cuts, improper management, etc. When I was a child there were police walking the streets on the beat, they'd be part of the community, would chat to people, even used to stop by a shop I worked at for a cup of tea and catch up once a week. Now there are few police on the streets, if ever. When I have had to call the police, response times have been 45 minutes to 2 hours.

So soaring crime rates is far more likely due to the cuts to policing, and the poor management, than immigration. But people seem to have a need to have a physical target to focus on, rather than look at the issues from a larger perspective.

@tinadrin Yeah, this is where the two-party nature of the United States changes things a bit.  You just need the other side to out-malarkey you by a little bit and you become the sensible choice.

Ever since the murder of George Floyd four years ago and the reactions to his murder, there's been a vocal wing of the left saying "police officers are overly harsh toward Black people, having more police is inherently racist."  This lets the right-wing position become "police are needed to crack down on crime, let's not give criminals a free pass because of their race."  

Also, there's a push to (for the moment) say "let's enforce our immigration laws, and not change them" on the American right.  There's a belief that people who immigrate here without going through the approval process would cause trouble, but mostly not that they're the ones responsible for current trouble.

When I look at the stuff coming from Geert Wilders or Marine Le Pen, I realize that they make Donald Trump look like a moderate by comparison.