ROCHESTER, England — Generations of British children learned history through a book called “Our Island Story.” Nowadays the old-fashioned Edwardian primer is experiencing a nostalgic revival — and its title sums up the mood of many as Britain heads into election season.
For British politicians of every stripe, immigration is increasingly seen as a problem to be curbed rather than an opportunity to be embraced. The 28-nation European Union, to which Britain belongs, appears a bureaucratic burden, not a strengthening alliance.
This increasingly isolationist mood has begun to alarm the U.K.’s EU neighbors. Even Germany, among the most sympathetic to British views, has warned that an attempt to restrict immigration from other member states — an idea floated by Prime Minister David Cameron that goes against a core EU principle — could lead to Britain leaving the union.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Monday that “freedom of movement inside the European Union is not negotiable for Germany.”
In response, Cameron’s office said he was determined to address “the impact of EU migration” on Britain. That could mean limiting benefits for new arrivals rather than stopping them outright.
The German warning is music to the ears of Mark Reckless, a British lawmaker who recently defected from Cameron’s Conservatives to join the U.K. Independence Party, which advocates British withdrawal from the EU and tighter controls on immigration.
“I think it’s good to have clarity and for people to be clear that we face a choice between European Union membership and control of our own borders, including who comes here from southern and Eastern Europe,” said Reckless, who is running to hang onto his Rochester seat in a Nov. 20 special election triggered by his party switch.
His arguments are finding fertile ground in Rochester, a town 30 miles southeast of London with a castle, a cathedral and tourist-luring ties to Charles Dickens, who lived nearby.
Retiree Pat Holyer is one of many Rochester residents who think UKIP’s policies make a lot of sense.
“It’ll stop all these people coming over here and living off the country,” said Holyer. “Half of them only joined (the EU) so they can come over here and get free medical treatment.”
UKIP has only one seat in Britain’s Parliament, with Reckless likely to become the second. But the party took the largest share of the British vote in May’s European parliamentary election, receives plenty of media attention and has managed to make the bigger Conservative and Labour parties focus on Europe and immigration.
Fearful of losing voters to UKIP, Cameron has promised to hold a referendum on EU membership if he wins a national election in May. Conservative politicians increasingly describe the 28-nation bloc in UKIP-like terms, as a money-sucking bureaucracy that has flooded the country with immigrants. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, a Conservative, recently said some British towns were being “swamped by huge numbers of migrants.”
It’s true that hundreds of thousands of migrants from Eastern European countries moved to Britain during the economic boom that preceded the 2008 global economic crash.
Britain has seen the number of foreign-born residents almost double between 1993 and 2011. London’s status as a global, English-speaking city has helped make Britain attractive to newcomers from around the world.
