Majority of Brits support the reunification of child refugees with family already in the UK

A new Ipsos study on behalf of IMIX, shows that: 

• Four in five (79%) agree a child should be able to reunite with a parent who already lives in the UK (7% disagree), and three in five (63%) agree that a child should be able to reunite with a sibling who already lives in the UK (13% disagree).
• However, this falls to a slim majority (51%) for those agreeing a child should be able to reunite with extended family members who already live in the UK (22% disagree)
• There is a big difference in levels of agreement on these measures between those who voted leave and remain in the 2016 EU referendum vote in 2016 with leave voters being less supportive – particularly with allowing reunification with extended family members. 

Kully Kaur-Ballagan, Research Director ,Ipsos said:

Britain has a long history of giving sanctuary to refugees.  This research shows there is strong support for reuniting child refugees with their family – although the specifics do matter as people are much more supportive of reunification with parents and siblings than wider, extended family.

Technical Details:  

• Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 2,1000 online adults aged 18+ across Great Britain between 12 March – 3 April 2020
• Data are weighted to reflect the population profile.
• The survey was conducted on behalf of IMIX, the migration communications hub with funding from Unbound Philanthropy and the Barrow Cadbury Trust.
• Percentage scores are shown out of 100%. Where figures do not add up to 100%, this is due to computer rounding. An asterisk indicates a score less than 0.5%, but greater than zero.
• Combined figures are based on the constituent parts (e.g. % agree = % strongly agree + % tend to agree). These figures are also subject to the effect of rounding