Migration Watch UK has today issued this analysis of public opinion on immigration:
The paper finds that, while a negative view of immigration in general has declined over the past decade, there continues to be strong public concern about its scale.
The paper assesses a blog by the London School of Economics (LSE) which suggested that negative views of immigration have declined from their peak in 2008. Comparing their graph with that of net migration over the same period, it is clear that the mass immigration triggered by New Labour in 1998 occurred at the same time as there was a sharp increase in negative views.
There was then a steep drop in such views from 2010 after the election of a Conservative-led government, and again in 2016 after the EU referendum. It seems very likely, therefore, that the public believed Conservative pledges to reduce immigration levels and concern may have been assuaged by this.
The subject has since been overshadowed by Brexit and then by the Covid crisis.
Much, of course, depends on the questions asked. Our paper finds that, when asked about the scale of immigration, clear majorities supported a reduction in ten different polls. This amounts to some 30 million adults over half of whom wanted immigration reduced “by a lot”. A poll by YouGov in July 2020 found that 54% think that immigration has been too high over the past decade. Only 5% thought that it had been too low.
Another YouGov survey – updated in early August – found that nearly 61% of the public believe that the government are handling the issue of immigration badly (having risen by 17% since March).
Commenting, Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said:
“While public opinion may have become less negative about immigration that could turn round very sharply if the government’s new system were to allow numbers to run out of control again. Indeed, the most negative reaction is likely to be among those who voted for the government for the first time last December.”
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