Brexit happened because we ignored those affected by immigration

For years, among my social circle, any attempt to discuss limiting immigration has been derided as backward or even racist.

We are the generation who have moved away from being insular, we pride ourselves on tolerating and even celebrating difference, but we don’t really engage with those from our own community who see the world differently.

Perhaps our tolerance is not as deep as we imagine, we are insulated from the effects of immigration, and so we find it easy to tolerate it.

My street has only one immigrant family, my job is not threatened by immigration – out of over 40 teachers in my school only one comes from the European Union.

However, for the working class cleaners that keep our classrooms spotless, immigration must look very different; where once we had almost 20 cleaners who were locally born we now have only five, the other 75% of the workforce coming from eastern European countries.

Imagine how differently immigration must feel to the five remaining locals – would such a change make you or I look at immigration differently?

The Brexit decision was made because we failed to engage with those parts of our community most affected by immigration.

I hope all political parties now correct this mistake before we reach the necessary decisions that follow on from Brexit.

We need honesty about immigration, it affects some of us more than others and we need to discuss and agree ways of making the process of whatever change is coming manageable and safe for all involved.

AJC, Belfast