80 per cent of the people arriving in the UK over the last year for work had a visa tied to a job to start when they got here
For years, immigration has consistently ranked among the top concerns in surveys of the British public. In response, political leaders have repeatedly made efforts to show that they can bring it under control.
During the last election, the Conservative Party reiterated its ‘ambition’ to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands and it has since made attempts to make the UK a less appealing destination for migrants by reducing their access to health, welfare or education services.
And yet the views expressed in public opinion surveys are often based on misinformation and false assumptions. This matters because it restricts the available space for envisioning and debating different approaches to the issue.
For over 15 years, a majority of respondents to public opinion surveys from Ipsos Mori have considered there to be ‘too many immigrants’. Yet the same organisation has also found that on average people also over-estimate the amount of migrants that there are in the country by double.
Similarly, the British Social Attitudes survey from 2013 found that a majority of the British population considered that the costs of EU and non-EU workers outweighed the benefits. In contrast, research has found that between 2000 and 2011 immigrants have made a net contribution to the country’s finances, paying in more in taxes than they use in services and benefits.
A further range of myths, such as that there is a vastly greater number of asylum seekers in the UK than is the case, is addressed in the latest publication from Class and Migrants Rights Network, Changing the debate on migration.
However, the problem is not just that people don’t know the facts: it is that they don’t trust political leaders to tell them the truth. Policies that are based on being tough and in control, such as setting targets, have failed. As a result, the British public has been consistently dissatisfied with the way its governments have tried to deal with immigration.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats suffered from declining public confidence on the issue and polling after their term in government has found half the population to consider immigration to still be the most important issue facing the country today. Attempts to be tough and in control have neither reduced immigration levels nor raised public confidence in our political leaders.
In a global era, international migration is an inescapable reality. Furthermore, migration, particularly between parts of the world with long-established historical connections, cannot be easily switched on or off.
For this reason immigration policies often fail at meeting their declared objectives. But that is not to say that immigration is out of control. For example, the latest migration statistics showed that of the people arriving in the UK over the last year for work, 80 per cent were arriving with a visa tied to a job to start when they got here.
Over the last parliament, the slight decline and more recent rise of net migration to Britain could be more easily explained by the national economy and availability of jobs than by government efforts to manage the phenomenon. As noted by Philip Legrain, those who arrive often do the jobs that locals don’t want, or start their own businesses which contribute further to the economy.
At the moment, false assumptions and distrust mean that few public figures openly consider what our country might look like without an overbearing focus on being tough and getting the numbers down. A constructive debate need not push for open borders, but at least should provide a chance to imagine the pros and cons of alternative ways of living with migration.
Simon McMahon is a research fellow at Coventry University
To download a copy of the pamphlet by Class and the Migrants Rights Network, click here
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34 Responses to “Too often public opinion about migration is based on false information”
madasafish
Ah yes: the “Class and the Migrant Rights Network” stands for anyone except UK citizens.
Nuff said
Louis Tierney
But it states in the article that, “on average people also over- estimate the amount of migrants that there are in the country by double.” These perceptions that people hold are due to – as the article title states – based on false information
jj
Its not all about sheer money for heavens sake!
I’ve been to both Riga and Vilnius very recently, presently at Vilnius. What I have realised is that these countries, even in the capitals, have indeed preserved their culture. Folk singing galore, beautiful churches packed full of people. Compare that to London, what is London’s distinctive culture? It doesn’t have one anymore, instead hundreds, and it feels incredibly uncomfortable with itself, unlike most capitals, its lost much of its soul.
damon
All this ”doing the jobs others don’t want” is really annoying.
Maybe not doing those jobs for those low wages and conditions.
Then make the jobs more attractive.
When I do deliveries of building materials to sites around greater London, Eastern European workers must outnumber black English guys by about five hundred to one.
Yet go down to the Hackney job centre and its full of young black British signing on as unemployed.
Working on a building site or inside an existing house doing decorating or refurbishing work is not the worst job in the world at all. In fact it can be a really good way to make a living as there is often a freedom and comradeship that you don’t get in an office job or working in other ”crap” jobs.
I went to a big site in SW London last week and the old Irish guy who took my stuff off with a forklift, told me he was practically the only one who spoke English on site. There were a dozen Romanians actually living in the basement of the building site he told me. They had driven up directly from Romania in a couple of vans.
Chris Kitcher
What a stupid comment. Peoples perceptions are fed by our racist Tory government that attacks the weakest to further the cause of the rich. You can overcome peoples perceptions by educating them to realise the facts and numbers involved.