I&#x27;m actually in favour of expanding immigration, but describing opposition to it as xenophobia is extremely unfair.<p>The logic is really very simple: those artificial barriers are also the borders between economies, social benefit systems, etc. etc. Every person within those borders that does not have a job puts a drain on the rest of the country. Someone without a job <i>outside</i> of those borders does not. So bringing someone across those borders while an unemployed person is within them is a net economic negative.<p>Obviously that is a vast, vast oversimplification, but there is a logic. Xenophobia is an &quot;intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries&quot; - putting your own economic interests ahead of others isn&#x27;t necessarily the product of dislike or fear. And some would say it&#x27;s entirely rational.