Parochial and Cosmopolitan Britain: Examining the Social Divide in Reactions to Immigration

British opinion is negative overall, but strongly divided: The British public is more negative about immigration than that of the other countries surveyed by Transatlantic Trends Immigration (TTI), but they are also more divided over the issue. Age, education, economic security, and migrant heritage all strongly predict views about immigration and immigrants in TTI countries, but the effects are stronger in Britain than elsewhere. These factors also all overlap, both in Britain and elsewhere; in particular, the last three are all related to age. The result is a generational divide over immigration, with older generations much more hostile about immigration than younger cohorts. This divide is wider in Britain than in other TTI countries.

The British favor migration that is economically beneficial: The British are not hostile to all forms of migration, but are much more positive about migrants who are well qualified to contribute to the economy generally or migrants who are recruited to work in specific welfare state sectors such as health care and long-term care for the elderly. British voters tend to have a knee-jerk negative response to migration in the abstract, but much more nuanced views of migration when it is placed in the context of real policy debates. Targeted migration policies such as Labour’s ' points system ' or recruitment to specific sectors with high demand are likely to enjoy much higher public support.