Perceptions and Reality: Public attitudes to immigration

With the support of Unbound Philanthropy, Ipsos has written Perceptions and Reality: Public attitudes to immigration; our attempt to present a more complete picture by collating and distilling a wide range of attitudinal data on immigration.

Attitudes towards immigration are one of the most researched areas of public policy, mostly in countless opinion polls, but also in more in-depth studies, often focusing on particular issues or communities.

However, there have been few attempts to bring the evidence together in one place.

With the support of Unbound Philanthropy, Ipsos has written Perceptions and Reality: Public attitudes to immigration; our attempt to present a more complete picture by collating and distilling a wide range of attitudinal data on immigration.

The report is structured around key themes: after an initial review of overall attitudes to immigration, there are separate chapters focusing on attitudes towards the economic, fiscal and cultural impact of immigration. Further chapters examine public views towards different immigrant groups, the national versus local perception gap and the relationship between media output and views of immigration. The final chapter examines views of the government’s handling of immigration.

As a supplement to the report, we have also written a summary – Perceptions and Reality: 10 things we should know about attitudes to immigration in the UK – focusing on 10 of the key findings.

We hope you enjoy reading them, and if you would like to discuss any of the issues they raise, then please get in touch.

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