It's hard to pretend we're no trouble or better than others when we've been seen puking in the streets & fighting outside bars though.
I think the issue is slightly different: many people feel they are extending a generosity when they ‘tolerate’ immigration.
People feel the UK is their home and they feel angry when (1) this generosity is exploited, and (2) the ‘guests’ start shitting on the doorstep and (3) the doorstep dumps are celebrated whilst complaints are dismissed as ‘racist’. Moreover (4) the shit hits the fan when the political discourse shifts and those born here are made to feel as if it is they who need to be tolerated. On one level, it’s all simple tribal psychology but on another political plane it relates to what people were actually told about immigration in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.
As you’ve shared those explanations and promises have been pointedly forgotten. One might rightly now assume that they were never sincere in the first place. Labour seems to think that concession (of cross party lying) is easy to get over, but it’s already having cataclysmic implications (Brexit being the main one) as people fight to recover a sense of agency.
It might also be noted that some supporters of immigration on here, including Cocksucker and Radis ‘the member’ Noir and Verso actually support immigration precisely because of its degenerative counter-democratic implications and impositions. They are no more than children playing with matches—simultaneously pathetic and tragic.
For me personally, as a Labour voter and union member, it is the draconian aspects of immigration policies that concern me. The issue of black and white is accidental and (for me) utterly irrelevant.
Finally, I’d share that refusals for genuine refugees run into the thousands annually. Many are sent home to die or be persecuted. On the other hand, asylum seekers in France who should seek help there are being fast tracked into the UK (Is it called the Dublin Procedure?). Is it any wonder that people say ‘pull up the draw bridge and let’s start from scratch’?
Having said all that, I’d wager that string pullers in Westminster would rather rip up British democracy entirely than modify immigration policies. And that should concern everyone, and the traditional left most of all.