Anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies intensify across Europe

Protesters wave a Union Flag during a demonstration in Orpington near London, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025 as the dilemma of how to house asylum-seekers in Britain got more challenging for the government after a landmark court ruling this week motivated opponents to fight hotels used as accommodation. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali) (Alberto Pezzali)

LONDON — 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 U.K. residents born abroad.

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

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

President Donald Trump, who recently called Somali immigrants in the U.S. “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 toward 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 polarizing influence of social media all play a role, experts say.

In Britain, there is “a frightening increase in the sense of national division and decline” and that tends to push people toward 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.

Across Europe, ethnonationalism has been promoted by right-wing parties such as Germany’s AfD, France’s National Rally and the Fidesz party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Now it appears to have the stamp of approval from the Trump administration, whose new national security strategy depicts Europe as a collection of countries facing “economic decline” and “civilizational 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 U.K. for decades. The center-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.

“There is no doubt it has worsened,” said Dawn Butler, a Black British lawmaker who says the vitriol she receives on social media “is increasing drastically, and has escalated into death threats.”

U.K. government statistics show police in England and Wales recorded more than 115,000 hate crimes in the year to March 2025, a 2% increase over the previous 12 months.

In July 2024, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim violence erupted on Britain’s streets after three girls were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. Authorities said online misinformation wrongly identifying the U.K.-born teenage attacker as a Muslim migrant played a part.

In Ireland and in the Netherlands, protesters often demonstrate outside municipal meetings in communities where a new asylum center is proposed. Some protests have turned violent, with opponents of asylum-seekers throwing fireworks at riot police.

Across Europe, the main focus of protests has been hotels and other housing for asylum-seekers, which some say become magnets for crime and bad behavior. But the agenda of protest organizers is often much wider.

In September, more than 100,000 people chanting “We want our country back” marched through London in a protest organized by a far-right activist and convicted fraudster Tommy Robinson. Among the speakers was French far-right politician Eric Zemmour, who told the crowd that France and the U.K. both faced “the great replacement of our European people by peoples coming from the south and of Muslim culture.”

Outflanking the right

Mainstream European politicians condemn the “great replacement” conspiracy theory. Britain’s center-left Labour Party government has denounced racism and says migration is an important part of Britain’s national story.

At the same time, it is taking a tougher line on immigration, announcing policies to make it harder for migrants to settle permanently. The government says it is inspired by Denmark, which has seen asylum applications plummet since it started giving refugees only short-term residence.

Denmark and Britain are among a group of European countries pushing to weaken legal protections for migrants and make deportations easier.

Human rights advocates argue that attempts to appease the right just lead to ever-more-extreme policies.

“For every inch yielded, there’s going to be another inch demanded,” Council of Europe human rights commissioner Michael O’Flaherty told The Guardian. “Where does it stop? For example, the focus right now is on migrants, in large part. But who is it going to be about next time around?”

Calls for calmer rhetoric

Politicians of the political center also have been criticized for adopting the language of the far right. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in May that Britain risked becoming an “island of strangers,” a phrase that echoed a notorious 1968 anti-immigration speech by the politician Enoch Powell. Starmer later said he had been unaware of the echo and regretted using the phrase.

Germany’s center-right Chancellor Friedrich Merz has hardened his language on migrants as the Alternative for Germany has grown more powerful. Merz caused an uproar in October by saying Germany had a problem with its “Stadtbild,” a word that translates as “city image” or cityscape. Critics felt Merz was implying that people who don’t look German don’t truly belong.

Merz later stressed that “we need immigration,” without which certain sectors of the economy, including health care, would cease to function.

Duffy said politicians should be responsible and consider how their rhetoric shapes public attitudes — though he added that’s “quite a forlorn hope.”

“The perception that this divisiveness works has taken hold,” he said.

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Jill Lawless, The Associated Press

Associated Press writers Mike Corder in The Hague, John Leicester in Paris, Suman Naishadham in Madrid, Sam McNeil in Brussels and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this story.