Amid preparations for a new wave of refugees arriving in the UK and other western countries from Afghanistan, an opinion article published at the weekly British magazine The Spectator prompted angry reactions online.
Examples of people with a “foreign-born” parent include The Prince of Wales, the Home Secretary, the Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary, all of the Prime Minister’s children, and Sir Winston Churchill.
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) August 31, 2021
Is that who you had in mind, Lionel?
The article titled "Would you want London to be overrun with Americans like me?" by American writer and journalist Lionel Shriver argued that the growing number of babies born in the UK to at least one foreign parent suggests that the country is going to experience a major "ethnic transformation" in a few decades.
"Unsurprisingly, then, a third of British school children are already from ethnic minorities; in 20 years, ethnic-minority children will constitute more than half the students in state schools." - Lionel Shriver
Shriver cites the approaching arrival of almost 20,000 Afghans as the fact that reminded her of the changes that are already taking place in British society.
Just on brand! Stoking racism and xenophobia as thousands of Afghan refugees are being admitted to the UK. The state of the hellish white supremacist British press! I am sure Fox News will follow suit or has already published their own version of this bigoted bullshit! https://t.co/7FUAI6lNsm
— Nednou (@nednou) August 31, 2021
The article continues to mention stats pointing at the rapid rate of births amongst mixed families saying that "More than a third of UK births now involve at least one foreign-born parent; in parts of London, 80 percent of births are to foreign-born mothers."
Hey lady, I'm sorry it makes you uncomfortable that so many of us have scary brown people genes in us, but we're British and there's nothing you can do about it. Absolutely raging, I cannot believe this racist, bigot-baiting trash was published.https://t.co/7PN6j55RO0 pic.twitter.com/jvPqsgMVoc
— Leila Molana-Allen (@Leila_MA) August 31, 2021
What the actual hell. If you had a bet on, ‘Spectator goes full, far-right replacement theory’, then collect your winnings. https://t.co/kT54ffsbn3
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) August 31, 2021
In response to the article, online people strongly attacked its content and accused its writer of "racism", highlighting that such facts are often only mentioned to warn of the non-European migrants".
Some social media users reminded each other of the fact that the Queen of England married a Danish who was born in Greece, "making several leading members of the royal family children of a foreign parent".
