According to figures published in August, there are 2.23 million EU nationals working in the UK – an increase of 238,000 on the same period in 2015. An estimated 850,000 Poles live in the UK.
In the part of London I know best it is quite rare to encounter British-born people working in shops, restaurants, banks or other similar places. Sometimes I think it is rare to hear English English spoken on the street ar all. This has transformed the city into one my grandmother, who lived nearby, wouldn’t recognise. If you are a visitor or you don’t any longer want to find a reasonably well paid job it is great. Personally, I love it. But few English people can any longer afford to live there. As far as resentment from the British-born population is concerned it has been a backlash waiting to happen.
I wonder what exactly the right wing populists are proposing. Officially, they say all they want is a limit on future numbers, with a guaranteed right to stay for EU nationals already here. But that is not what many people voted for Brexit voted for. Many of them not only want stringent limits on future numbers, they believe that ‘taking back control’ means getting to decide who stays and who leaves. In theory, if we left the Single Market, EU nationals would have to apply for work visas. The government could then deny them those visas, preventing them from working.
If Leave politicians merely want a limit on future numbers, then for the ‘left behind’ British Leave voters Brexit will happen too late. Many of the EU migrants are here to stay, having established good jobs and links to the wider community. It would be wrong to force them to leave. I’m afraid the London of your grandmother is never coming back, however much those of the older generation may wish it to.
There are two other phenomena I will mention here. One is the sheer number of British people living in the EU, which the UN estimates is 1.2 million: bigger than the population of Surrey! (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36046900) Those British people benefit from having the right to live and work abroad, so its only fair if others have the right to come here.
The second is the number of British people that have (and continue to leave) London over the years. Sometimes crudely described as ‘white flight’, British people have left London for a variety of reasons: they prefer country living, commuter trains to the capital have improved, schools have historically been poor in the capital, they want to raise children, London is too expensive. Perhaps some feel culturally alienated from an increasingly diverse city. But then it is the British that are refusing to integrate with the immigrants, not the other way around. Between 2001 and 2011, about 620 000 white British left London (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21511904), and that isn’t showing signs of slowing down.