Britain’s immigration debate fuels rising fear among people of color

Complaints about racism at work rose 55% in three years, with global majority nursing staff making about three calls a day to the Royal College of Nursing advice line. The union expects more than 1,000 calls in 2025, after nearly 700 cases in 2022, nearly 800 in 2023 and more than 900 in 2024.

For Ali Haydor, who has lived in Britain for nearly four decades, the strain has become personal. He says there are days when he wishes he could hide his brown skin, a fear that has grown alongside a political debate over migration that increasingly spills into work, health care and street-level hostility.

That sense of threat sharpened after the June 2 protest in Southampton linked to the Henry Nowak case turned violent. Some people arrived intent on causing disorder, threw bottles, used makeshift weapons, damaged homes and vehicles, and directed threats and violence at officers. Thirteen men, aged 18 to 44, were sentenced for violent disorder, and police officers and a police dog were injured.

The backlash has not stayed confined to one city. Threats and attacks have also been tied to a stabbing in Belfast involving a Sudanese immigrant, while patients have refused care from nurses because of race and racist remarks have been made in the workplace.

Views on immigration in Britain are divided, and British Social Attitudes research shows a slight reversal since 2021 after a long period of increasingly positive attitudes. Separate research on small-boat crossings found that highly visible irregular migration can reduce support for immigration, especially among right-leaning media consumers. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has condemned racism and warned that racist language is making a return.