Shropshire’s ‘Migrant Street’ has torn up the social contract

The front page of the Sun today reveals that 83 asylum seekers will soon be moved into 21 newly built homes worth £250,000 each, in the small Shropshire village of Stoke Heath. It was a headline that made you wonder if the Home Office is trying to destroy Labour’s chances of remaining in power.

Locals, who claim to have been kept in the dark over the plans, have unsurprisingly taken a dim view of what the Sun has dubbed ‘Migrant Street’. Many object that they have no idea who all these newcomers are. Others have expressed disbelief that a whole estate’s worth of social housing will be given to foreign nationals.

Both concerns are justified. Although the homes have been reserved for families who are ‘seeking asylum’, the public is now well aware of what this really means in practice. Nearly everyone who arrives in the UK illegally lodges an asylum claim and the vast majority of these claims are successful, regardless of their merit. Simply because the government uses the phrase ‘asylum seeker’ does not mean that a family or individual is actually fleeing persecution or war. Even if they were, the government’s own guidance is clear that they should apply for asylum in the first safe country they reach – yet ignoring this rule seems to have no impact whatsoever on the success of a claim.

Quite rightly, the public also expects British nationals with an established connection to an area to be given priority for social housing. Certainly, the fact that they are so often overlooked highlights one of the public’s burning grievances with the current levels of immigration – both legal and illegal. The UK is already in the grips of a severe housing crisis, and allowing the population to grow – against the repeated wishes of the public – can only increase the competition for an already limited pool of homes. This is to say nothing of the stress mass migration has placed on the welfare state more broadly.

Those Shropshire residents have every right to object to having ‘Migrant Street’ on their doorstep. What could possibly be more unfair than prioritising new arrivals over long-suffering citizens? The social contract is being shredded before our eyes.

Hugo Timms is a staff writer at spiked.