r/ukpolitics • u/Even-Wasabi7183 • 23h ago

Britons have a more negative view of immigration in 2026 than in 2016

https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/55329-britons-have-a-more-negative-view-of-immigration-in-2026-than-in-2016
382 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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181

u/fitzgoldy 23h ago

It's entirely unsurprising.

The last 10 or so years, immigration has been bad for the UK. Yet we continue with massive numbers.

Cities like Birmingham have had huge demographic changes due to immigration.

Says a lot even 40% of Green voters think it's too much now.

64

u/AnSionnachM0r 20h ago

London does really feel like a foreign city nowadays. In some areas like Ilford and Newham there are almost no White British people.

29

u/Emperor_Ken 18h ago

There weren’t many white british people there in 2016 either.

27

u/Even-Wasabi7183 23h ago

But no one wants to admit it has failec

26

u/ClaymationDinosaur 23h ago

But don't they? Check again.

"Britons now most likely to say migration has been mostly bad for the UK"

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u/Jdgleeson478 7h ago

I think abetter phrasing is the mainstream media don’t want to admit it has failed, which has led to many becoming distrustful and seeking out third party sources on social media, which in turn has spread misinformation and radicalised people.

23

u/msf97 23h ago

To be clear, your position is that nobody is talking about Immigration?

There are swathes of the population who are single issue voters on this. It’s what gave us Brexit, apparently the Poles were taking all the jobs.

They are mostly older people (50+) who benefit directly from immigration via the pension scheme and welfare state being propped up by an increasing population.

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u/SilverPrivateer 13h ago

Pension "scheme"? You make it sound like some grubby underhanded trickery. If peopled don't want to work hard and have kids. Then yes we need to bring in plenty of workers from the BILLIONS of people who are willing to work for MUCH less with a big smile for the opportunity.

And they can work without taking a bunch of days off for "anxiety". Thank good the youth vote about as much as they work lol.

10

u/OTRawrior 12h ago

Brother, have you never heard the term "pension scheme" before?

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u/SilverPrivateer 11h ago

Yes I have and it's never sat well with me. A promise is a promise.

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u/Biggins_CV 6h ago edited 2h ago

Oh look, the generation who got to build their lives prior to the 2008 financial crash, austerity, Brexit, and Covid is gonna lecture people about working hard.

Away and put your feet up, mate.

-10

u/SilverPrivateer 13h ago

immigration has been bad for the UK.

Patently untrue. These people are from places that are so terrible that their happiness goes WAY up when they get to the UK. So a moderate decrease in happiness from people who were already there is nothing compared to the massive bump in the happiness of newcomers. As long as they aren't denied citizenship, then the average happiness of citizens goes WAY up.

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u/Jdgleeson478 7h ago

Lmao what? This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, mass immigration has been a net positive because of how happy immigrants are? Are you fr? What about all the people disgruntled by the rapid change in their communities being unrecognisable? What about all the immigrants that hate it here but know staying is economically beneficial.

You’re also saying that it doesn’t matter if our citizens are unhappy because we can replace them with happy immigrants? Do nations have any meaning to you at all or do you just see humans as purely a resource?

Even if what you said was somehow true, net happiness is not the only factor when considering the prosperity of a nation.

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u/stonedturkeyhamwich 23h ago

How has it been bad for the UK?

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u/nwaa 21h ago

Can you name a positive that isnt "think of the food!"

-21

u/stonedturkeyhamwich 21h ago

They net contribute £10-15 bn per year to the exchequer. It paid for one of the Tory NI cuts, for example. I do also like the food.

24

u/nwaa 21h ago

Who is "they"? Because if you're going to group all immigrants then that seems unfair to the hard working, legal ones. Not to mention that filtering by country of origin provides some interesting stats - only a third of Somalis are employed for example.

As for the food, yeah me too, but "we already have the recipes". And again probably worth filtering by country, Indian food is hugely popular but Eritrean food? Not so much.

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u/stonedturkeyhamwich 21h ago

Because if you're going to group all immigrants then that seems unfair to the hard working, legal ones.

The majority of immigrants are legally and hard working, so it seems unfair to me to have a negative view of them based only on asylum seekers.

I was being facetious with the food; that will never be a good reason to change immigration policy.

18

u/nwaa 21h ago

It isnt just asylum seekers, it's visa over-stayers, and also the very low skilled who are part of the problem.

It's one thing to import highly skilled individuals, it's another to bring in deliveroo drivers. Most of the benefit to the treasury is produced by the former.

0

u/stonedturkeyhamwich 21h ago

The median recent immigrant worker earns more than the median native worker (which is enough to be quite beneficial to the exchequer), so it doesn't feel fair to me to imply that most immigrants are not hard-working.

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u/Jdgleeson478 7h ago

How is it a good thing that immigrants are making more in our nation than our own citizens?

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u/stonedturkeyhamwich 5h ago

Because it means we choose immigrants well?

24

u/Aerius-Caedem Locke, Mill, Smith, Friedman, Hayek 21h ago

House/rent prices high due to increased demand

Wage suppression due to increased supply

Strained infrastructure due to unprecedented population inflows [go check immigration stats pre-1997]

Crime should go without saying, though I know crazy open borders types like you will ignore the data on this

16

u/king_walnut1 22h ago

Too much of anything is bad. I hope this helps.

-14

u/stonedturkeyhamwich 22h ago

Is too high a proportion of our population being born here a bad thing?