Speed reading: on refugees and migration

18 June 2026, The Tablet

Speed reading: on refugees and migration

In If We Tolerate This: How the British Establishment Made the Far Right Respectable (Picador, £14.99; Tablet price £13.49), a compelling study of how right wing populism became mainstream, Daniel Trilling explores the role austerity played in Reform UK’s rise. He focuses on politicians who “divert our fears and anxieties about the future towards a convenient scapegoat”, demonising refugees and migrants and promising total border control, while ignoring the realities of human movement. A better immigration policy, Trilling argues, would allow migrants and asylum seekers to work while awaiting the Home Office’s decisions, helping their integration.

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