Record migration is just another broken promise worrying Essex towns

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Seventy-five years after the Empire Windrush offloaded the first wave of Caribbean migrants at Tilbury docks on the Thames, many older white residents of nearby Essex towns remain conflicted over immigration.

But the caricature of the xenophobic Brexit voter who longs for Britain to close its borders and licks the right-wing rhetoric of the ruling Conservative Party demonizing refugees is largely misplaced.

Since the 2016 referendum, when more than half of the population polled thought immigration was one of the most important issues facing the country, attitudes have subsided considerably across the UK.

Only 15% of people Ipsos polled this year felt the same way. This trend is reflected in the Thurrock district, where Tilbury is located and where 72.3% of voters supported Brexit.

Local reaction to Thursday’s news that net migration in the UK it reached an all-time high of 606,000 last year, despite repeated pledges by the Conservatives to reduce it, it has been faded.

“I am not against migration. Since Roman times it has been what made Britain great. It’s the amount of it – it’s just a small country,” said Bernie Parsons, a former merchant seaman who voted for both Brexit in 2016 and the Conservatives in 2019.

People in the area were angry at the party for not delivering on its promises, including on migration, and disillusioned with Brexit for not making the UK more prosperous.

“I have friends who voted for it and now they think it was a big scam,” said Alan Harmer, a social worker and Labor supporter in the town of Grays.

Residents also expressed alarm at the rate at which services were dwindling and the cost of living rising. That anxiety is compounded by the feeling among older people, who grew up in the area when it was almost uniformly white, that if the population continues to expand due to immigration things will get even worse.

“People are getting pissed about this. There are not enough doctors, schools. Who will build the houses?” asked Parsons, from a balcony overlooking the Tilbury docks.

But come on legal migrationhis thinking was in line with the purpose of the post-Brexit rules: to replace the free movement of people from Europe with a system that favors skilled migrants from wherever they come from.

“We need professionals. Nurses, doctors, engineers,” Parsons said.

In 2016, the promise made by Boris Johnson and other right-wing politicians that Brexit would allow Britain to ‘take back control of our borders’ was no doubt a factor in Thurrock becoming one of the top five boroughs with leave vote in the country.

Peter, a 53-year-old warehouse worker who declined to give his name, was among those who backed Brexit and Johnson in part because of that pledge.

“I will never vote Conservative again,” he said. But migration was just one of several issues fueling his anger.

“The NHS is overrun. The Conservatives have bankrupted the council. Thurrock, there are too many people. Immigrants keep coming. They also take people from London and throw them here,” she said, referring to the provision of social housing as an outflow from the capital.

He did not think the main opposition Labor Party would do much better and was unsure who to vote for in the next election.

The immigration figures have triggered infighting in the Tory party and led to Rishi Sunakthe prime minister, making more promises to reduce the numbers.

Jackie Doyle-Price, Conservative MP for Thurrock, declined to join the frenzy.

“The stories about immigration and Brexit are all about broken promises. People are disillusioned because it seems the government is not in control,” she said.

Some residents think migration is partly to blame for the housing crisis, he added, but they also understand the need for migrant labour.

“The answer is to build more houses. Politicians should stop playing the gallery and move on,” she said. “All of these things are a failure to address the big political challenges of the day.”

Regarding the government’s priority of stopping irregular immigration across the Channel, he said that “the Home Office can get by on its own without demonizing people who are genuinely fleeing persecution.”

Union representatives in the area declined to comment, a sign of nervousness perhaps in a peak constituency they’ve held in the past but where they haven’t stormed expected in recent local polls.

Some younger voters in the area were more supportive of the opposition and optimistic about levels of migration.

Raqeeb Udin, a 35-year-old cybersecurity development manager who represents the district’s changing demographics, said the country needed more people of working age. The migration debate, he said, has been “a distraction from the bigger issues.”

“It’s easy to make people angry because others take their job. In general, fear and anger are primary emotions that speak louder than reason and facts,” he said, blaming 13 years of Conservative rule for most of the problems Thurrock faces.

Linda Dove, a retired funeral director, was less hopeful about alternatives, sharing a sense of disappointment with many of her generation.

“They promised us that if we left the EU our prospects would be better. It didn’t materialise. They promised tighter borders. That too went by the wayside,” she said.

“They promised us everything when we entered the EU and they promised us everything when we left. Neither worked.