As the UK’s 2015 election campaign gets going, immigration is taking centre stage. It is likely to be a heated debate informed by what Scott Blinder has called “imagined immigration” because the public consistently overestimates the numbers of people coming to the UK and has a wrong perception of who the immigrants are.
In a very useful article on The Conversation website, Ipsos Mori’s Bobby Duffy reviews the hard evidence and public misconceptions.
For example, when asked to guess the proportion of the population who were not born here, people guess 31% (median 26%), compared with an actual proportion of 13% (14% if you include the upper estimate of illegal immigration). Similarly, when asked who comes to mind, we are much more likely to think of asylum seekers and refugees and much less likely to think of students – but that is the wrong way round: asylum-seekers are in fact the smallest of the main immigrant groups, students the largest.
Duffy concludes that ‘any government or political party has real problems on immigration: concern is high, views ill-informed, government is not trusted, they have limited policy levers they can pull, and the areas in their control are the ones people are least concerned about (such as students and highly-skilled non-EU workers)’.
In the 2015 election will any of the politicians be brave enough to challenge public misconceptions and campaign on the evidence? Or will it be a rush to the bottom?
I enjoy, lead to I found just what I used to be taking a look for.
You have ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man.
Have a great day. Bye