HAS BREXIT KILLED THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE?
IMMIGRATION is no longer the top concern for Brits - as new figures reveal less of us see it as a problem since the Brexit result. For years, YouGov has polled attitudes towards important issues facing the country.
And a poll conducted just weeks before the Brexit referendum in June 2016 revealed that 56 per cent of Brits saw immigration and asylum as the most important issue facing the country - ahead of health and the economy. Experts even said that the issue of immigration was “a powder keg waiting to explode”.
But Yougov’s recent polling data shows just 31 per cent of Brits see immigration and asylum as the most important issue facing the country.
It means the proportion of people seeing immigration as a top concern has nearly halved in under two years. The data suggests that people have become more positive about immigration since the Brexit referendum though experts say this may just be because people assume immigration will now be cut.
Now, people consider Britain leaving the EU as the most important issue facing the country.
Rob McNeil is deputy director at The University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, which provides analysis of data on migration.
He said: “A possible factor for why there has been such a sharp reduction is that the often shrill media and policy debate around migration has quietened down somewhat since the referendum as there is less political advantage to be gained by highlighting the level of net migration, particularly when it has been dropping anyway.
“There may also be a sense among some people that the issue of immigration and control of the borders has been dealt with by the Brexit vote.
“Broader concerns about Brexit in general have eclipsed most other subjects in public debate and where people are raising concerns about Brexit as a whole, it is not unreasonable to think that some parts of that may also relate to immigration.”
A spokesperson for the Migrants’ Rights Network said: “It comes as no surprise that public opinion post the Brexit referendum has become less angry about immigration. As an issue, immigration was a powder keg waiting to explode. “What Brexit and especially Windrush since has shown is that not only do the public not trust government but they don’t know enough about the mechanics of immigration. Attitudes to asylum and immigration are changing because people are hearing the humane, everyday stories of people caught in the headlights of the the hostile environment but also with employment at an all time high, there is no excuse to fear migration.”