Immigration

Brexiteers focused on figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which record net migration (a surplus of inward migrants) at 330,000.

• This figure includes British nationals returning to the UK.
• Many migrants do not settle in the UK; the reality is that people come and go.

Recently the ONS published an analysis of why, over the past five years, some 1.2 million non-nationals had applied for National Insurance (NI) numbers.

• These are required for formal work and access to state benefits.

The difference between the two figures (330,000 and 1.2 million) is the result of short term migration to the UK; workers not settlers.

Immigration policy tends to focus in one of two ways.

• The USA, Australia and Canada use 'objective' measures and points-based systems which prioritise skills, education and language ability.
• States with less of an immigration history often give greater weight to cultural factors they believe will promote integration.
• When formulating policy, governments test for material threats (affecting housing and schooling) and symbolic threats (cultural values and issues).

The Leave vote was highest in areas with fewer migrants.

The British public does not support the current restrictions on asylum.

Public opinion data records that British attitudes to migrants are shaped more by a sense of fairness than attitudes regarding race, nationality, skills or language. The British public do believe:

• That benefits draw migrants to the UK.
• That access to social rights should be conditional and not automatically available to EU citizens. (A 2008-9 ESS survey foudn almost 50% feel new arrivals should acquire the right to social benefits only after they have worked and paid taxes for at least a year.)

Source: Prof. Brad K.Blitz (a leading expert in migration studies) in pop-up newspaper The New European, issue 15-21 July 2016

There has always been some racism in the UK; it's almost impossible to find a country in which racism, at some level, does not exist. The suspicion of the outsider, the person who is not part ofyour group but may try to take it over, is deep inside all of us. We are more comfortable with those who are similar to us, and - whatever group we belong to - we tend to believe that our group is superior to others.

What we do with the differences is the key to racist beliefs and behaviour. Feeling that your group is best can tip into rating all others below you; in other words, you feel prejudiced against an entire group of individuals as a result of your sense of place in the world. This can be exacerbated by the sort of low esteem that may already have been growing in parts of the UK. Countering arguments are ignored as political correctness nonsense.

Even if you think you are not, you may well be a bit racist. The Implicit Association Test (bit.ly/1m808ph) was devised by a group of US universities, including Harvard, to measure the strength of associations between concepts (black people, gay people) and evaluations (good, bad) and stereotypes (athletic, clumsy). Take it some time - you may be surprised at what it reveals of hidden, unconscious prejudices of all kinds,including race.

Source: Louise Chun in pop-up newspaper The New European, issue 15-21 July 2016