Public opinion on UK immigration more positive despite record number of arrivals

Broad public consensus is system should meet needs of economy and labour market

Passengers queue at Border Force desks in Heathrow Airport. Reuters

Despite a record number of migrants arriving in the UK in recent years, public attitudes towards immigration are much more positive than in the past, a think tank has said.

Migration to the UK last year reached its highest level since records began in the 1960s, as the world reopened after the pandemic.

Despite net migration totalling 504,000 in 2022, a study by the UK in a Changing Europe (Ukice) think tank published on Thursday found public opinion is much more positive towards immigration than previously.

“The biggest shake-up in UK immigration policy for half a century coincides with a sustained shift in public attitudes in a more positive direction, with a broad consensus that the system should meet the needs of the economy and labour market,” said Jonathan Portes, senior fellow at Ukice.

The study found that, for the first time in polling history, more people want migration levels to increase or stay the same than want net migration to fall, while the public is also more likely to believe immigration has a positive impact on the UK than not.

It suggested that these changes in perception are due to the belief that Brexit has delivered “stricter” controls, with an end to freedom of movement and skilled migrants prioritised over the unskilled.

“This policy approach is broadly popular and makes it harder to claim the government is not exercising control over who comes to Britain, even if overall migration levels remain high,” Ukice said.

The study also found significant changes in who is coming to Britain, with a fall in work-related migration for sectors previously reliant on low-paid workers from the EU along with a rise in work visas for higher-skilled, higher-paid staff from outside the bloc.

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But Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory, said the fall in low-skilled immigration and the consequent labour shortages have not resulted in increased pay for staff in industries such as hospitality.

“The post-Brexit immigration system has given with one hand and taken with the other. While some low-wage sectors have faced labour shortages as they adjust to a world without free movement, others have seen a boom in recruitment,” she said.

“The average impacts of the new immigration system are still expected to be small, but it’s clear that different employers are experiencing it in very different ways.”

A fall in EU students attending UK universities, mainly due to facing higher fees since Brexit, has been more than offset with a rise in non-EU student visas, particularly for Nigerians and Indians.

Meanwhile, the UK has also seen the biggest influx of refugees since the Second World War, with 437,000 people arriving via humanitarian routes since the end of the transition period on December 31, 2020. About 85 per cent of these arrivals were Ukrainians or people from Hong Kong.

Overall, Mr Portes told reporters that the UK’s post-Brexit migration system is working as intended.

“The objective of the system was to end free movement and thereby reduce migration in relatively low-skilled sectors, low-paid jobs, and somewhat liberalise the system in high skilled, higher-paid jobs,” he said.

“It is, in my view, achieving those objectives.”