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Keir Starmer’s recent speech on immigration has generated a good deal of controversy. In announcing a government white paper to cut legal migration, the prime minister said: “Nations depend on rules – fair rules. Sometimes they’re written down, often they’re not, but either way, they give shape to our values … Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”

As someone who has researched what gives people a sense of national belonging, I would argue there is evidence that Britain has become an “island of strangers” in the sense that people live increasingly isolated lives. But the problem has very little to do with migration.

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New public opinion research from think tank More in Common has found that 50% of Britons feel disconnected from society around them, while 44% say they sometimes feel like “strangers in their own country.” This feeling of alienation was strongest among Asian Britons.

Some evidence suggests a relationship between diversity (ethnic and racial diversity) and lack of social cohesion, rather than migration. The More in Common polling found that 53% of those polled say multiculturalism benefits the UK’s national identity, while 47% say it harms it. But the evidence is mixed, and studies find that it is inequality, not diversity, that has the biggest effect.

Rather than portraying the problem as solely because of immigration, the prime minister might usefully focus on other significant factors that have made people feel like strangers.

First is the dramatic loss of community spaces and assets in recent decades in the face of local government cuts and rising property prices. Government austerity has led to a decrease in funding for local authorities of around 50% between 2010 and 2020.

My own research in this area shows the significance of places like community centres in allowing young people from different backgrounds to come together. When they do, they feel a greater sense of belonging in their communities. Some research has also shown a link between austerity cuts to youth services and rising knife crime.

Over the last three decades, places and spaces where people come together to participate in activities and engage with those from different backgrounds have been decimated.

Between 2018 and 2023 in London alone, 46 community spaces permanently shut down. The public service union Unison estimates that “funding cuts have led to the closure of more than two-thirds of council-run youth centres in England and Wales since 2010”.

Almost 800 libraries were closed during the 2010s, and more continue to disappear each year. Leisure centres are also at risk. A 2023 report by the Local Government Association suggests that 40% of council areas will lose some or all of their leisure centre services in the next two years.

The undermining of publicly-owned community spaces has been matched in the private sector. The pub – a key marker of community identity for many – has been subject to increasing pressure.

A recent report from industry body the BBPA claimed that “nearly 300 pubs closed across England and Wales in 2024 – an equivalent of six a week”. The group pointed to rising costs and the fact that consumer habits are changing, with younger people drinking far less.

A lonely island

The loss of community assets means people have fewer places to engage with others on a regular basis. There is also evidence that the pandemic and online isolation have driven high rates of loneliness affecting all age groups and generations.

According to the Campaign to End Loneliness, in 2022 nearly 50% of UK adults reported feeling lonely occasionally, sometimes, often or always. And around 7% experience chronic loneliness.

While levels of isolation and loneliness have gone up for all generations, it is notable that a report for the Centre for Social Justice found the problem is worst for 18- to 24-year-olds, with 29% of this age group saying they “feel a fundamental separateness from other people and the wider world”.

Britain’s younger generations are struggling with loneliness.
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When it comes to discussing community and cohesion in contemporary Britain, it is interesting that only certain groups (usually particular kinds of migrants and their offspring) are the focus. We can see this in wider political and media debates, where such groups are blamed for living separate lives or not integrating.

I’ve written about this idea before, finding that minority groups “broadly replicate the ethnic majority in terms of their attitudes towards British identity and institutions”. More recent survey data supports this. Figures for various ethnic groups are remarkably consistent when it comes to feeling they belong in Britain – Asian (85%), black (86%) and white (84%).

Class divide

The idea that people in Britain are increasingly living separate lives – or in what Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, calls a segregated society – is rarely discussed in terms of inequality or class.

And yet, the More in Common polling found that financial insecurity is one of the strongest predictors of whether Britons feel disconnected from society.

Income inequality in Britain is widening. Recent figures show that in 2022 alone, “incomes for the poorest 14 million people fell by 7.5%, while incomes for the richest fifth saw a 7.8% increase”. Moreover, research shows a link between lower economic status and higher rates of loneliness and social isolation.

It is perhaps these growing divisions that should really be the focus of any government strategy. Focusing on local initiatives designed to protect, or expand, community assets such as libraries and youth and outreach centres appears a much more productive means of ensuring that Britain’s isn’t completely transformed into an island of strangers.

Michael Skey receives funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council

He is a member of Amnesty International