In the past year, tens of thousands hostile to immigrants marched through London chanting “send them home!” A British lawmaker complained of seeing too many non-white faces on TV. And senior politicians advocated the deportation of longtime UK residents born abroad.

The overt demonisation of immigrants and those with immigrant roots is intensifying in the UK — and across Europe — as migration shoots up the political agenda and right-wing parties gain popularity.

In several European countries, political parties that favour mass deportations and depict immigration as a threat to national identity come at or near the top of opinion polls: Reform UK, the Alliance for Germany and France’s National Rally.

President Donald Trump, who recently called Somali immigrants in the US “garbage” and whose national security strategy depicts European countries as threatened by immigration, appears to be endorsing and emboldening Europe’s coarse, anti-immigrant sentiments.

Amid the rising tensions, Europe’s mainstream parties are taking a harder line on migration and at times using divisive language about race.

“What were once dismissed as being at the far extreme end of far-right politics has now become a central part of the political debate,” said Kieran Connell, a lecturer in British history at Queen’s University Belfast.

Europe experiencing a growing sense of division

Immigration has risen dramatically over the past decade in some European countries, driven in part by millions of asylum-seekers who have come to Europe fleeing conflicts in Africa, the Middle East and Ukraine.

Asylum-seekers account for a small percentage of total immigration, however, and experts say antipathy towards diversity and migration stems from a mix of factors.

Economic stagnation in the years since the 2008 global financial crisis, the rise of charismatic nationalist politicians and the polarising influence of social media all play a role, experts say.

Related

In Britain, there is “a frightening increase in the sense of national division and decline” and that tends to push people towards political extremes, said Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Unit at King’s College London. It took root after the financial crisis, was reinforced by Britain’s debate about Brexit and deepened during the COVID-19 pandemic, Duffy said.

Social media has exacerbated the mood, notably on X, whose algorithm promotes divisive content and whose owner, Elon Musk, approvingly retweets far-right posts.

Trump administration’s new national security strategy depicts Europe as a collection of countries facing “economic decline” and “civilisational erasure” because of immigration and loss of national identities.

The hostile language alarmed many European politicians, but also echoed what they hear from their countries’ far-right parties.

National Rally leader Jordan Bardella told the BBC he largely agreed with the Trump administration’s concern that mass immigration was “shaking the balance of European countries.”

Racist rhetoric and hate crimes on the rise

Policies once considered extreme are now firmly on the political agenda. Reform UK, the hard-right party that consistently leads opinion polls, says if it wins power it will strip immigrants of permanent-resident status even if they have lived in the UK for decades.

The centre-right opposition Conservatives say they will deport British citizens with dual nationality who commit crimes.

A Reform UK lawmaker complained in October that advertisements were “full of Black people, full of Asian people.” Conservative justice spokesman Robert Jenrick remarked with concern that he “didn’t see another white face” in an area of Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city Neither politician had to resign.

Many proponents of reduced immigration say they are concerned about integration and community cohesion, not race. But that’s not how it feels to those on the receiving end of racial abuse.