Member's statement: Anti-migrant Attitudes

Member's statement by Ms Kate Nicholl on 11 November 2025.

MLA

Ms Kate Nicholl

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

11 November 2025

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Anti-migrant Attitudes

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5349051

Read the official Assembly record

Text

There is an article in the newspapers today about an all-female, far right group giving out pink knuckledusters at an anti-migrant protest. We need to change how we talk about migration, not just on the human level, but to give the economic perspective. If you set aside the cruelty of this, and the fact that you will be arrested if you are caught with a knuckleduster, anti-migrant protests make no economic sense. We need to talk about the economic aspect more in the Chamber. We are approaching a full labour market, and we have many skills gaps. If you speak to any business, they will say that they are desperate to recruit because it is hard to fill the skills gaps in Northern Ireland. So, we need foreigners. If we want people to look after us when we are old, we need foreigners to come into our economy. When I post about this subject on social media, people say, "Oh, this is what Kate always says. Liberal Kate. It is about illegal migrants." Tell me what the distinction is, because when vigilantes in east Belfast knock on the doors of people with a different skin colour, they are not checking on their migration status, and it is creating a chill factor in our society.

People from different backgrounds already feel fearful. We have seen over the past couple of summers just how much fear there is in society.

As politicians, we have to talk about the economic realities. If we cannot agree, on the human level, that these are human beings and that they need to be treated with dignity, humanity and kindness, let us talk about the economic side of things. The unemployment rate in Northern Ireland is at an all-time low, and we have a weak labour supply. Growth in the working-age population is weak and will be negative from 2029 onwards. That poses serious challenges for our economy when it comes to skills. Whether it is from the chamber, the CBI, the Federation of Small Businesses and other organisations, we keep hearing that skills are an issue. Between 2001 and 2023, 293,000 long-term international migrants arrived, but 231,000 people left, so net migration flow was 62,000 people. If we do not have the people and skills to fill our vacancies, how will we grow the economy? We have in Northern Ireland some of the most amazing businesses. Our amazing screen industry is growing, and we have tech: we have so much opportunity. Where we fall down and let people down, however, is in our rhetoric. We demonise outsiders when we need to encourage foreigners and migrants to come here. We can deal with asylum by speeding up claims, dealing quickly with false claims and creating safe and legal routes, but we need to be really careful not to conflate the issues. Our economy needs foreigners to come here, and we need to be very careful in how we talk about that.

494 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 01:21 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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