A UK Immigration officer checks cars crossing over from France. Photo: Gareth Fuller / PA Wire/Press Association Images. All rights reserved“My sole concern was the fate of the large minority of UK families whose living standards have become permanently depressed, at least in part — it would seem — as a result of a surge in net migration from the EU to the UK.”
This was David Elstein’s rationale for voting ‘Leave’ in the referendum. Worth noting, because it lies at the heart of his argument, is the conflation of immigration and deprivation - effected by means of a parenthetical aside: ‘it would seem’. Apparently, evidence-free speculation is all that Elstein needs to justify what is effectively an attempt to blame the decline of large areas of the country on immigrants. In defence of his vote, Elstein offers a few statistics of unstated provenance and takes particular aim at a post-referendum lament by John Lanchester in the London Review of Books which - despite Elstein’s barbs - is well worth reading. More on this later.
If a correlation exists between immigration numbers and voting ‘Leave’ it seems likely to be negative.
