Rising Hard-Right Narratives and Complex Belonging in the UK Amid Anti-Immigrant Sentiment
Between 2025 and 2026, the UK experienced a rise in hard-right narratives, anti-immigrant sentiment, and intimidation connected to asylum-seeker hotels and flag symbolism. A stark example of dog-whistle populism emerged when a lieutenant of Nigel Farage told David Lammy to "go home" to the Caribbean. This illustrates how populist rhetoric has intensified societal divisions.
An Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) study highlighted that more individuals are absorbing hard-right ideologies, increasing hostility and division toward non-white communities. The author of the piece, the son of Windrush-era migrants, reflects on his family's sense of belonging, noting the impact of the 1971 Immigration Act on his parents’ legal status.
Further complicating questions of belonging, the 2002 Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act permits the home secretary to revoke British citizenship without notice if considered in the public interest. According to the Runnymede Trust, approximately 9 million people, mainly dual nationals, remain vulnerable under this law, with minority citizens experiencing this risk at a rate twelve times higher.
Policymakers have referenced plans such as the Rwanda deportation scheme as attempts to address issues of home and belonging by relocating people deemed unwanted. However, the author argues that belonging is not a single fixed destination but a reality formed from multiple places.
Supporting this view, the author shares results from a DNA test (Ancestry) revealing mixed ethnic origins across many countries. Maternal lineage traced back to Benin, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Scotland, and Iceland, while paternal lines include Benin, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Devon/Somerset, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal, Panama, and Costa Rica. This diversity reflects the complex identities of many UK residents.
The piece further illustrates the everyday challenges of belonging through examples of racism: incidents such as a car passenger insulting a Black woman and a pub turning away a patron because of their ethnicity demonstrate the ongoing lived experience of exclusion faced by minorities in the UK.
