A refugee holds up flowers to the welcome march in solidarity with the refugees residing in the jungle of Calais. January, 2016. Sadones Frederik/Press Association. All rights reserved.The overwhelming weight of evidence suggests that immigration is generally a good thing – for the societies that receive talented, hard-working and diverse newcomers, not to mention for migrants themselves. Yet public perceptions of migration are often much more negative. How, then, should this chasm between perceptions and evidence be addressed?
The charge sheet against immigrants is wearily familiar. They stand accused of stealing locals’ jobs and depressing their wages, burdening the state and public services, causing crime and terrorism, and much else. But while some immigrants do bad things (as do some locals), these charges are largely unsubstantiated. On the contrary, migrants tend to contribute to society by filling jobs that not enough locals want to do or can do, while their diversity and dynamism tend to boost creativity, innovation and enterprise.
One response is to claim that the data fails to reflect voters’ lived experience and that people’s first-hand perceptions are surely more accurate than dry statistics and aloof academic analysis. Yet a subjective interpretation of an anecdote – an unemployed local builder sees a Polish one working and blames the immigrant for his lack of a job – is scarcely rigorous evidence.
