Home Reports Social Sciences Content

Explaining anti-immigration hostility in Britain

next article

12.09.2007

An article published recently in Political Studies questions some of the established thinking about the impact of immigration and examines the causes of differing attitudes to UK immigration policy, particularly the concern that increasing immigration results in additional criminal activity and presents a threat to shared customs and the British way of life.

The key findings of the article are that:

• People claim to think of the good of society rather than their own self-interest when worrying about the impact of immigration;

• One of the most significant worries concerns employment and the fear that immigrants are taking fellow citizens’ jobs;

• Public worries that immigration leads to increased crime are misplaced; there is no relationship between immigration and crime rates

• These last two fears can be remedied by policy makers through dissemination of the facts;

• The worry that national symbols are being eroded is entirely subjective and therefore more difficult to address.

The article will be freely available until the end of October - to access the article please visit http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00680.x

Lucie Crowther | Source: alphagalileo
Further information:
www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00680.x

next article