Your fourth paragraph raises all sorts of questions, off the top of my head:
- Are the social tensions really caused by high levels of immigration or is it a proxy for something else?
- What constitutes high levels of migration, are the causes of the 2019 to 2023 spike short term issues? if so have the conditions that caused them gone away, or do they still need to be addressed?
- Given that the nature of migratory patterns has changed hugely in the last four years as a result of Brexit what does that say for the future
- Given net migration is now heading down again, how much of a pressing issue is it?
These are not rhetorical questions and are all legitimate topics for discussion
However.....
At one level we've already had a debate - it was the GE and as a consequence of that, the new government will be introducing the Border Security, Asylum & Immigration Bill and associated initiatives.
In terms of scrutinising those plans, one of the challenges is that to have a debate you need people to act in good faith in terms of wanting to solve whatever the issue may or may not be. A significant number of people currently involved in the debate are not acting in good faith, they are weaponizing the issue for their broader political agenda. This is what the last government did, it's what Farage has spent his entire political career doing. So if there's a debate to be had, how should it be had and who should be having it? The government and a detoxified opposition possibly, but what are the chances of the Tories getting their shit in a pile any time soon?
So I understand your general point but my question would be what type of debate do you think is needed and how should we have it?