Why do attitudes toward immigrants seem to change when the economy gets worse?

Added: 2026-06-07

[00:00:00]Your ability to see or not see an immigrant changes dramatically with your standard of living and how things are going.

[00:00:08]>> Mhm.

[00:00:09]>> I think people really take that for granted. When you're doing well, >> when your economy is doing well, when things around you are doing well, >> you'll be shocked at how you don't notice immigrants.

[00:00:19]>> They're sort of silently existing in your world because things are going well because you don't see them. You don't notice the guy at the corner shop has an accent in that way when you you've got enough money and the prices are affordable and your your wages have kept up. You don't notice the the immigrant in the hospital bed next to you when you're also getting care. You don't notice you don't notice.

[00:00:40]>> But a system that is failing its people >> is inevitably going to have its people notice the people who are not quote unquote its people cuz they're like wait what is >> I don't understand. You're saying we don't even have enough for us.

[00:00:54]>> Yeah.

[00:00:54]>> Then why do we have enough for them? And I I think of it genuinely through like the the most personal lens.

[00:01:01]>> When we had food in my house and my mom like my mom was always always like, "Please go give give those street kids this food. Give that homeless guy this.

[00:01:10]Give that." She she did that her whole life. She still does that, right?

[00:01:14]I remember in my life when we were doing well in the house, like when we had a full fridge, I I never noticed it. I would I would run over giddy to that guy and I'd give him bread and and stew and some money. I didn't notice it. It's when my mom opened her purse when it was empty.

[00:01:30]>> Took out her last 10 rand note and said, "Go give it to that guy." And I was like, "This woman has lost her goddamn mind >> genuinely."

[00:01:38]>> Yeah.

[00:01:39]>> I mean, I still think she's amazing for like doing that. But I won't lie to you.

[00:01:42]As a kid, I was like, "No, lady." I was like, "That guy there, he should not be getting our money in any way, shape, or we have nothing." Yeah.

[00:01:50]>> And then she was like, "No, no, you think we have nothing. We don't have nothing yet. He has nothing.