An Indian asylum seeker I knew returned to India last year after spending five years waiting for his application to be processed in the UK. He was not deported. He simply packed his bags, flew back to his hometown Chandigarh and reunited with his wife and daughter. He had watched anti-immigrant sentiment rise, felt the simmering anger in the streets and sensed the political hostility tightening. He also eventually realised that his own country had not deteriorated to justify leaving his family and homeland behind.
He is far from alone. Indians now form the largest group of migrants voluntarily returning home. It is a telling commentary on how sharply Britain’s mood has shifted.
The Chandigarh man’s return should be seen not as a personal decision but as a barometer. Britain is undergoing its most aggressive anti-immigration turn since Brexit. And for Indians -- students, IT professionals, nurses, investors and the 1.8-million-strong diaspora -- the implications are becoming increasingly unavoidable.
The September anti-immigration rally
On 13 September in London, an estimated 150,000 people participated in what is now being described as the largest anti-immigration protest in modern British history. They marched with slogans that should unsettle every immigrant community: “They’ve taken our jobs”; “Britain is full”; “We want our country back.”
This was no gathering of fringe extremists. The “Unite the Kingdom” march, organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, drew ordinary residents. They included pensioners, retail workers, traders, small business owners and students. It reflected mainstream anger. Such large-scale public hostility matters because it shapes political decisions.
Within this climate, Indians felt concerned, much of it spoken in whispers. Britain now hosts more than 140,000 Indian students each year, thousands of Indian tech workers, medical professionals, researchers and investors. Indians are also significant among asylum applicants. The rally did not target Indians specifically, barring a few racist taunts. But when the national mood hardens, no immigrant group remains exempt. Ask the Indians in Ireland. Racist attacks against Indians has become a daily routine
Migration now defines the Starmer government
In the days following the rally, several independent polls showed Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s approval ratings collapse. One poll suggested that if elections were held today, Labour would be routed and anti-immigrant leader Nigel Farage’s Reform UK would emerge as the single largest party, just shy of a majority. Eighteen months ago, Labour won a comfortable mandate. Today the party is seen as politically exhausted, surviving out of inertia.
Britain is facing a political breakdown. The government is shaken by rebellion, public distrust and growing panic within Labour ranks. In an extraordinary gesture, a Labour MP (Clive Lewis) publicly offered to vacate his (Norwich South) seat so that Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, could re-enter Parliament and mount a leadership challenge against Starmer. Burnham has long been seen as a potential successor but cannot run without a seat in the House of Commons. The MP’s offer underscores both the scale of Labour’s internal turmoil and the collapse of confidence in the Prime Minister within his own party.
The one issue that could still revive the government or destroy it entirely is migration.
The United Kingdom’s Denmark moment
It is against this backdrop that Starmer’s government introduced the most sweeping asylum overhaul in modern UK history. It is driven less by policy vision and more by political survival. It is, to borrow an Indian political parallel, reminiscent of VP Singh tabling the Mandal Commission report to save his government.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Britain’s first Pakistani-origin home minister, unveiled reforms last week that will fundamentally rewrite the meaning of asylum in the UK.
The proposed plans are based on Denmark's strict migration policies. Under these plans refugee status in the UK will now be temporary rather than permanent, with every applicant undergoing a fresh review every 30 months. This alone injects a deep sense of uncertainty into the lives of people seeking safety. The wait for permanent residency has been stretched from five years to twenty. And anyone whose home country is later deemed “safe” will be asked to return. This is not simply a tightening of the system; it is a structural rewrite of what asylum means in Britain. The aim is simple. It is to slash numbers and to make the UK a less attractive destination for asylum seekers and migrants. The new system signals a new era of suspicion, scrutiny and insecurity.
How will Indians be affected
This matters profoundly for India. Britain is home to one of the largest Indian diasporas in the world. The impact will be felt on three prominent Indian groups.
First, students. They may see universities tightening compliance rules or restricting dependents even further as the political mood shifts. The second group comprises Indian skilled professionals. They will be vulnerable to employers becoming more cautious about sponsoring visas amid public pressure to “hire British.” The third group contains the Indian asylum seekers. They are small in number but they will face far more sceptical assessments and faster removal, as return rates have already surged. Indians have benefited immensely from Britain’s open economy and liberal migration system. But that openness is no longer guaranteed now
Impact of Nigel Farage
Remember the name of Nigel Farage, a politician quite capable of becoming the country's Prime Minister if this trend continues and migration remains his party's main plank. His Reform UK party is polling as the single largest party in the country, just short of a parliamentary majority. He has dragged both Labour and the Conservatives into a defensive mode. Mahmood’s asylum overhaul is, in many ways, the Farage agenda implemented by Labour.
It is a European phenomenon
Britain’s anti-immigration turn is not an isolated phenomenon. Across Europe, Germany’s AfD is surging, France is preparing for a possible Marine Le Pen presidency, Giorgia Meloni leads Italy, the Dutch swung hard to the right and Scandinavia has already hardened its migration policies. The entire Western world -- from Canada restricting student visas to Australia tightening entry rules to the United States battling its own border crisis -- is undergoing a historic shift towards migration politics. Britain is simply the latest front in this global realignment.
Nothing seems permanent
For the Indian diaspora, this shift is not abstract. British Indians are among the most successful communities in the country, politically, economically and culturally. The UK has had an Indian-origin prime minister and multiple Indian-origin cabinet ministers. But history shows that success is never a permanent shield. Ugandan Indians in 1972 were expelled despite being the backbone of the economy. Chinese Indonesians in 1998 suffered severe persecution despite generations of citizenship. The White community fled Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Many British Indians today quietly admit they feel the shift. Not panic, but a subtle unease -- the sense that belonging can become conditional when a nation starts searching for scapegoats.
Britain is at a crossroads. Its migration debate is now the battlefield on which the nation’s future will be fought.
(Syed Zubair Ahmed is a London-based journalist of Indian origin with over 30 years of experience in the Western media.)
Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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