World Immigration News

(Bristol24/7)‘Our immigration system is failing but immigrants are not the enemy’

Release Date: 2026-08-10
Media: Bristol24/7
Summary: Abdul Malik, a Green Party councillor in Bristol, warns that immigration is increasingly becoming a scapegoat for wider social problems following recent protests and counter-protests in the city. He acknowledges legitimate public concerns about high immigration, border control, housing shortages, rising rents, NHS waiting lists, crime and the cost of living. Britain has the right to control its borders and enforce immigration law, but immigrants as a group should not be blamed for failures caused by government policy and inadequate planning.

Drawing on his own experience as an immigrant who has lived, worked, paid taxes, run businesses and served the Bristol community for decades, Malik argues that the term “immigrant” covers people in very different circumstances. Long-term residents, NHS doctors, care workers, business owners, refugees and people without legal status should not be treated as a single category. It is entirely possible, he argues, to believe that the immigration system is failing while rejecting the idea that immigrants themselves are the enemy.

Malik also rejects dismissing everyone concerned about immigration as racist or far-right. People should be free to argue for lower immigration and protest peacefully. However, intimidation based on race, religion or background, as well as violence by either protesters or counter-protesters, must be dealt with equally under the law.

Integration, he argues, involves mutual responsibilities. Immigrants should obey the law, contribute where possible and make an effort to participate in British society. In return, people who work, integrate and build their lives in Britain—and their children—must eventually be accepted as belonging rather than permanently treated as outsiders.

Malik concludes that Bristol’s everyday reality is far less divided than social media and political rhetoric suggest. People from different backgrounds routinely live, work and raise families together. Britain therefore needs effective border and asylum policies alongside adequate housing, healthcare, education and infrastructure. Blaming ordinary immigrants for decades of political failure, he argues, will solve none of these problems and risks turning neighbours against one another.
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