"The latest estimates show that from all-time peaks in 2023, net immigration fell last year by 85 per cent to just 500,000 new arrivals in the US, and by 50 per cent to 1.2mn in the EU. In the UK the peak came a year earlier, and the decline has been just as deep, with net immigration dropping 75 per cent to 200,000.
Outside the US, the crackdown may have been less dramatic and well televised but hardly lacking in vigour. The EU cut border crossings by more than 20 per cent in the first nine months of 2025, expedited the rejection of asylum applicants, and offered financial and diplomatic incentives to outside countries to accept returns and prevent departures. Former immigrant magnets such as Canada and Australia have pulled up the welcome mats, cutting the inflow of international students and (in Canada) the supply of permanent resident permits [Canada has dropped international student in take from 650k to 150k, a 77% drop]. Even in Spain, perhaps the only major western country still opening its doors, opposition to immigrants is rising in polls, lifting the fortunes of rightwing parties.
Amid widespread fear of AI and the threat it poses to jobs, a continuing immigration bust will push the opposite way. It is shrinking workforces and giving unions more bargaining power, which could add to labour costs — and inflation pressures — in 2026." – source
Posted by housingANDTransitPLS
4 Comments
“Patrick, we did it! We lowered the housing prices!”
https://preview.redd.it/mb9sqd90o5cg1.png?width=715&format=png&auto=webp&s=d1bdb35f9cb8d37d4264a35a9d43de94a3e3773e
(if someone can edit this and add Canada and the UK, i will kiss you)
Goes to show that anti-immigration is not a distinctly American phenomenon in general or in the 2020s specifically. The violent, authoritarian measures we have taken are uniquely American, but a lot of the developed world clearly feels this way right now. Some of it is housing, but I think it has to go deeper than that on some level.
Most of our hospitals and nursing homes would literally need to close without a constant stream of immigrants. I mean it. The last nursing home I visited had exactly one German staff member and she was in administration. The last hospital I’ve been to still had a handful of German nurses, but most were foreigners and so was every single doctor I saw. My diagnosis letter was in broken German, lol. Long story short: The ship has sailed. We need immigrants to keep our rapidly aging countries running.