Perceptions and Reality

Ten Things We Should Know About Attitudes to Immigration in the UK

Bibliographic Data

ID10360302
AuthorsBobby Duffy (0000-0002-6511-4338, Managing Director, Social Research Institute, Ipsos MORI and Visiting Senior Research Fellow, King's College London., corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume85
Issue3
Pages259-266
Publication date2014-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Political Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3179 • E-ISSN: 1467-923X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-923x.12096
OpenAlexW2002723543
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Immigration is one of the most frequently covered issues in opinion surveys—but the volume and type of questions asked has actually obscured many of the key facts about our attitudes. This article summarises a year‐long project to draw together as much of the published polling as possible in one place, in as neutral a way as possible. The overall picture is one of genuine concern about immigration among a large proportion of the population—but more nuance on specific aspects, and a number of important gaps between perceptions and reality. Also highlighted are the increasingly polarised views on immigration between generations and different class and education groupings. The lower level of concern among younger generations and the growing graduate class suggests that immigration may be less of a concern in the future—but that the electoral weight of the more concerned older generations means that restrictive rhetoric and policy on immigration will be a key feature of the 2015 general election

Class (philosophy · Demographic economics · Economics · Epistemology · Immigration · Immigration policy · Perception · Political science · Polling · Population · Rhetoric · Sociology · Demography · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access