Shelagh Fogarty urges for immigration rhetoric U-turn from 'unhealthy and unacceptable' path

22 May 2023, 21:10

By Anna Fox

The rhetoric against the integration of immigrants in the UK must change from: "Woah foreigners, Johnny foreigners, oh my God, get them out of where I live!" says Shelagh Fogarty.

Shelagh Fogarty called for a U-turn in the UK’s immigration rhetoric, exclaiming: “We’ve just got to be smarter about this and less sort of ‘Woah foreigners, Johnny foreigners, oh my God, get them out of where I live, oh my God!’.”

Caller, Hannah, agreed with Shelagh, stating: “People are so willy nilly without thinking through well how are we going to make this work, and that just creates tension and hatred.”

Their conversation fell as the government is set to ban most international students from bringing their families to the UK in a crackdown against immigration.

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New figures, set to be unveiled on Thursday, are expected to show net migration has increased to 1 million people.

Hannah continued her viewpoint to Shelagh, stating: “When you keep filling bits in that are falling off you never end up with a whole structure”.

Condemning the government's immigration rhetoric, Hannah exclaimed: “It’s taking us down this path that I don't think is either healthy or acceptable”.

She stated: “People are so willy nilly without thinking through, well how are we going to make this work?

"That just creates tension and hatred and it's such a short-term policy, which isn’t a policy, which isn’t a reaction and nobody is standing back and saying actually there's a gap there."

Rishi Sunak pledged to reduce net migration when he became Prime Minister last year.

The figures of people coming to the UK on a relative’s student visa reached 135,788 last year, nine times higher than in 2019.