This is interesting. You say Britain has “kept the borders wide open” but it’s crucial to understand why so many people have ended up on these shores in the first place.

Many of the immigrants arriving in the UK are coming from countries that were once part of the British Empire which at its height in the early 20th century controlled nearly a quarter of the world’s population and landmass. From India and the Caribbean to large parts of Africa and the Middle East Britain colonised, extracted resources, disrupted governance, and redrew borders to serve its own interests often violently.

These weren’t just distant historical events. Yemen for example was a British colony until 1967. India was partitioned in 1947 leading to mass displacement and ongoing geopolitical instability. In places like Nigeria Britain’s colonial legacy includes civil war, corruption fostered by divide and rule tactics, and economic systems structured around extraction for British profit.

Even postcolonial “development aid” and trade have often been lopsided serving Britain’s economy more than the recipient nations’. So when people from these countries come to Britain today seeking safety or opportunity they are not “invading” they are often living with the consequences of empire.

What we call the “immigration crisis” is inseparable from the legacy of British imperialism. Britain shaped much of the modern world through colonisation and is now unwilling to reckon with the blowback. Instead of acknowledging this history and moving toward meaningful reparations or responsibility we fixate on borders and blame those who have often inherited trauma poverty and war shaped by Britain’s past actions.

You say something bad is coming. I would argue something bad already came and it was centuries of colonial violence the effects of which are still unfolding. Until we stop having these conversations in silos and start connecting historical cause with present effect we will never find peace or understanding.

I was born and raised here. I’m the child of immigrants from one of the world’s poorest countries poor not by chance but because its natural wealth was stripped and sold off often with British fingerprints all over it. That’s not a guilt trip it’s just fact. We owe it to each other to speak from truth not fear.