warwickshire, england
An unprecedented flood of immigration is driving up Britain’s population by around 1 percent a year.
A decade ago, net migration was 212,000, and that was considered high. In 2022, that number soared to 745,000. The nation is now adding the population of Nottingham, its fourth-largest city, each year.
This is quickly changing the face of the United Kingdom. Over a quarter of all births are to migrant mothers. One in 5 elementary schoolchildren do not speak English as a first language.
The United Kingdom also has its own southern border crisis. In 2022, almost 46,000 people illegally crossed the English Channel in small boats, and nearly 30,000 came last year. Ninety-nine percent of these illegal immigrants remain in the country. Most are coming from Afghanistan, Albania, Iran, Iraq and Syria. About 2 percent of Albania’s entire adult male population is estimated to have crossed to the UK in dinghies.
The British government spends £8 million (us$10.1 million) on hotel rooms for these migrants every day. In addition to the hotel bill, it spends £2 billion a year on the asylum system.
Albanian gangs now dominate England’s illegal drug market. They are the largest foreign nationality in prison: 1.6 percent of all inmates come from a group that makes up 1/20th of 1 percent of the UK population.
Perversely, getting involved in crime can actually help these young men stay in the UK. Once imprisoned, they can claim that they were forced into gangs and are victims of modern slavery. This entitles them to asylum.
The United States and Canada are also experiencing migrant crises, but what makes Britain’s somewhat different is that this economic and demographic disaster is occurring under the watch of a Conservative government.
At every national election since 2010, British voters have elected Conservative candidates who campaigned to reduce migration. In 2010, 2015 and 2017 these candidates promised to cut net migration to “tens of thousands” per year. In 2019, they dropped that number but still promised to reduce it.
Why have they broken their promises? There is more to this than politicians being corrupt liars.
Why This Is Happening
Britain has an employment crisis. This is not an unemployment crisis. Unemployment is at 3.8 percent (1.3 million), close to its lowest figure in 50 years. But far more are claiming out-of-work benefits because of poor health. A total of 5.6 million have their livelihoods paid for by taxpayers while they sit at home and do nothing. In several northern towns and cities, 1 out of every 4 working-age residents is not working.
Half a million adults under age 35 are out of work due to long-term ill health. For one third of them, their disqualification from work (and entitlement to taxpayer funds) is their “mental health.”
That is a lot of lost workers and a massive welfare bill. Twenty percent of the government’s budget goes to welfare spending (pensions are not included in that figure). It has to be paid for somehow. This Conservative government believes if it follows through on its promises, it will create a shortage of workers, businesses will lack the staff they need, and tax income will be unable to pay all the people at home doing nothing. It fears that the economy will crash and it will be blamed.
As for illegal immigration, the government has at least brought the total down from its peak, but it’s still well above the levels from just three years ago.
The solution should be simple. Providing asylum is a benefit for people fleeing from danger. How many of these migrants are in danger in France? Close to zero: France is not a dangerous country. But a major obstacle to sending these migrants back to France is the European Convention of Human Rights. It has been interpreted to mean that migrants have taxpayer funding for legal cases, many opportunities to appeal, and an array of excuses to stay put.
The British government arranged to ship some of the illegal immigrants to Rwanda, but the European Court of Human Rights ruled this move incompatible with the convention.
Britain’s migrant problems, then, reflect a host of deep problems: moral and family problems that lead to “mental health” issues; poor physical health; economic decline; rule from Europe; and a lack of bold leadership to deal with any of them.
This is not simply a physical problem: It is a moral and spiritual crisis. It should not seem farfetched to look to the Bible for answers.
Biblical Perspective
The book of Hosea catalogs many problems facing us today—and gives the solutions. Hosea 4:13 prophesies of modern-day child sacrifice. Spiritually speaking, you see this happening on a mass scale. We neglect teaching and rearing our children, and leave them vulnerable to terribly destructive spiritual forces. When they grow up, their own families are plagued with adultery and immorality, and family decline worsens (verse 14). The result is a nation that is “oppressed and broken in judgment” (Hosea 5:11). Governing officials make poor decisions and the whole nation suffers. Instead of trying to address Britain’s employment crisis, they try to take the easy way out by bringing in migrants. That causes yet more problems.
These are general warnings, but also specific prophecies. For decades, the Philadelphia Trumpet and its predecessor, the Plain Truth under Herbert W. Armstrong, have shown that the biblical Israelite tribe of Ephraim was the ancestor of modern Britain. Bible prophecies about this tribe apply to the British today. (Request our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy to learn more.) That is why the book of Hosea applies so directly to modern Britain.
What are the results of this weak leadership? “Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people [or foreigners]; Ephraim is a cake not turned” (Hosea 7:8). In some ways the nation may look good on the surface. But on the inside it has been overbaked and burned out. Even the issues caused by migration are covering up much deeper societal problems.
The Bible warns that when Britain needs strength and unity, it will suddenly be found missing: “Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not” (verse 9).
But this same biblical book has solutions for Britain.
In Hosea 8:7, God says, “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind ….” Hosea, and all Bible prophecy, is about cause and effect. We have caused our own problems, and God will let us experience the results. “O Israel,” God laments, “thou has destroyed thyself …” (Hosea 13:9).
Why? Hosea 4:6 says we “are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” We have been running our lives, our families and our societies our own way. God wants us to see the problems we are causing ourselves, nationally and individually. Going our own way without submitting to the knowledge of God leads to problems, frustration and unfulfilled lives.
But “in me is thine help,” God says (Hosea 13:9). “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). God wants to teach us how to successfully run our lives and our nation. Once we heed that knowledge, we can thrive. “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him,” God says. “I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon” (Hosea 14:4-5). Hosea ends with a message of hope: Turn to God, and He will give us solutions.