Thread: Britons lead on hostility to migrants - The Financial Times

Britons lead on hostility to migrants
By James Blitz in London
The Financial Times, 07/09/2010

More than six out of 10 Britons believe immigration to the UK is spoiling the quality of life, suggesting that the British are more hostile to immigrants than people in France, Germany, Spain or Italy, according to a new poll.

As a number of European governments continue to face fierce political disputes over the issue, a Harris poll for the Financial Times indicates that Britain is the state in western Europe where antipathy to immigrants is greatest, closely followed by Spain.

The survey, conducted towards the end of last month, shows some 64 per cent of Britons believe the current level of immigration is making their country "a worse place to live".

The UK also scored the highest figure of any country in the survey when respondents were asked whether immigration had an adverse effect on state education and health systems. Some 63 per cent of Britons thought immigration levels made the National Health Service worse while 66 per cent said it made the state education system worse.

The poll comes in the wake of remarks by immigration minister Damian Green, who said the UK needed to look harder at who was qualifying for visas after research showed more than a fifth of foreign students were still in the country after five years. In his first major speech since the coalition took office, Mr Green said on Monday levels of net migration, which rose by a fifth last year to 196,000, must be brought down and "all routes into the UK" must be studied to ensure that only the "brightest and best" people came to study or work.

The FT survey reveals that Spaniards are the other national group particularly exercised by immigration, with concerns focused on employment. Spain's jobless rate is 20 per cent. Six in 10 Spaniards said immigration was making their country a worse place to live.

Some 67 per cent of Spanish respondents thought immigration to their country was making it harder to find a job, a figure well above those of other states. Some 32 per cent of Spaniards thought they were being paid less as a result of the number of immigrants entering the job market – again a figure considerably higher than in other states.

In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy's government has been divided over the tough line he has taken towards the Roma population, which is being forcibly removed from the country.

The poll shows that some 48 per cent of French respondents believe immigration has a negative impact on the economy, against 26 per cent who say it is positive.

Germany came last of any of the states when respondents were asked whether immigration was bad for the economy. Just 32 per cent of German respondents took this view, against 52 per cent who felt the same in the UK.

Immigration experts argue that fears are often based on false perceptions rather than facts. Although 40 per cent of Germans say immigration is making the country a worse place to live, Turkish emigration to Germany has declined dramatically since 2000.

Other states have seen an outflow of ethnic minorities as the financial crisis has hit western economies.

The figure of REAL Britons opposing immigration is probably higher at around 75%

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Good point. It depends how the survey was conducted, completely at random or selectively. It's difficult to see how it could have been conducted completely at random, the researchers would either have to approach people in the street, in which case they could select a few\several\quite a few non indigenous looking people, or 'phone them, selecting a few\several\quite a few non indigenous surnames.
One other point, I have long suspected that Germans are afraid of criticising immigration, and defending their heritage, due to Germany's Nazi past. We have no such qualms about criticising immigration and defending our heritage, because we don't have a Nazi past.
Although I suppose we are just as afraid, despite our non Nazi past, because anyone that criticises immigration and defends our heritage risks being accused of being a Nazi.
Damien Green should get on with restricting immigration instead of just 'looking harder' at it, especially restricting dependents and phony students.
I 'look hard' at the idea of digging my garden every day, but never get around to doing it.
Whatever the reasons are that we don't want mass immigration, the fact is we don't want it, and that should be enough for the government.
We don't have to explain ourselves.

Considering that the Spanish are taking land and properties from immigrants and charging them for the service, I would imagine that the UK have a long way to go before we catch up to the Spanish Government.