However you want to term me – Asian, British, BrIndian or even politically black – more than at any other time in my life I feel alienated from the country in which I was born. As someone who grew up the in the era of the “Paki-bashing” 1970s, that is a startling and depressing realisation. The poisonous terms in which the immigration debate is being conducted have made me hesitate before venturing outside any of the UK’s big cities.

A visit to a semi-rural Oxfordshire village last month gave me an unease and a feeling of discomfort that I was unable to pinpoint as anything other than as unfriendliness until I returned home (to Willesden Green) and experienced the relief of seeing and hearing a mixture of nationalities and languages on my local high street. It’s a feeling that I know many people with non-white skin will recognise. A day trip to the Kent coast is not on the cards for me anytime soon.

And I’m not alone in finding this environment thoroughly alienating: a recent report from Migrant Voice reported that 63% of respondents thought the debate on immigration exerted an influence on their sense of belonging.

In Mark Reckless the UK has an MP who has appeared to call for the repatriation of migrants. Never mind that these migrants came here and are living here entirely legally, that the UK is their home and, for some, has been for decades. They have built lives here and their children were born here. These are all minor details in a political debate that has identified migrants as a problem and therefore, entirely logically, seeks to remove that problem.

Those campaigning against the government’s “go home” vans last year warned that, far from only targeting people who were in the UK without the correct documentation, they represented a broader attack on all migrants and visible minorities, settled or not. Reckless’s suggestion that migrants may only stay for a fixed period should the UK leave the EU can be seen as a continuation of that idea.

That Reckless felt able to make these comments shows a growing confidence among those who seek to focus on migrants for political gain. Aided by the acceptance of Ukip’s central plank by the mainstream parties, Reckless was so punch-drunk at the prospect of victory that he let his party’s electoral-friendly mask slip to express views that have not been part of the political mainstream since the days of Enoch Powell – and from which even Ukip has distanced itself.

The difference is that Reckless is unlikely to be challenged as Powell was. He is overtly saying what was subtly implied on those sloganeering vans of the government. While many far-right parties throughout Europe have softened their edges slightly in order to become electorally viable, Reckless appears to be doing what many suspect they still hope for – normalising the discourse of repatriation within mainstream politics.

Again, as with the “go home” vans, this is reminiscent of the “send them back” arguments of the National Front in the 1970s but where would Reckless draw the line? Do the adult children of migrants have a right to stay? How far back would you need to trace your ancestry to prove you have a right to be here? And what if you were born under British rule in a former colony, as my parents were – do they have to leave too, or do they count as British?

While the use of racism and scapegoating of migrants in the runup to a general election is nothing new, we can look to the rest of Europe to see how the ideas of populist anti-immigration parties go back and forth between the mainstream parties of left and right. A glance at the history of France’s Front National shows that its rise was from a party able to say the unsayable, to one that won 25% of the vote in the European elections, aided by a wider acceptance of the party’s anti-immigration premise.

In the UK, the main parties have formed a similar political consensus that is serving only to bolster Ukip’s support: David Cameron attending an immigration raid as a publicity stunts; Ed Miliband implying that migrant workers are to blame for low wages; both parties chasing headlines to see who can be tougher on migrants’ rights to claim benefits. What Ukip says today the Tories legislate on tomorrow, while Labour desperately waves from the sidelines, shouting: “Me too!”

Such actions will have implications for every migrant and visible minority in Britain, settled or not, far beyond another victory for Ukip.