As you mentioned earlier though, the issue isn't immigration per se, but the scale of it, which has been accelerating even though its been obvious for some time

As you mentioned earlier though, the issue isn't immigration per se, but the scale of it, which has been accelerating even though its been obvious for some time that we're already beyond the point at which it is beneficial to economy or society in other ways. The backlash is inevitable - it doesn't benefit the lives or ordinary folk. It must be scaled back, but if governments aren't willing to remedy that, they'll invite in a populist government which will turn the needle the other way, as has happened in the US. Turning the needle the other way will also likely to be detrimental to the economy in the long term, but the insistence on labelling ordinary people with legitimate concerns as "racist" so as to ignore them is what has created the political division, absence of any centrist politics, and rise of extremism on both sides. The remedy is to scale back the rate of immigration, not cut it out entirely.