Immigration, Multiculturalism and British Future

In the wake of a recent report by think tank British Future, the UK media has been abuzz with articles on immigration and the role of immigrants in Britain. The report titled Hopes and Fears: The British Future State of the Nation Report 2012 makes some sweeping generalisations, but here are the key highlights in relation to immigration and integration:

• Many people wildly and worryingly exaggerate
  the scale of asylum, but believe that Britain is 
  a country where we welcome new neighbours. 
  Most of us think it takes less than three years 
  for “them” to become “us” when somebody 
  moves to a new area.
• We think that Britain 
  is less polite, as well as less racist. Black and Asian people are most likely to think race relations got better; relying more on the lived experience of everyday integration that the rarer flashpoints which inevitably catch headlines.
• The poll shows that we recognise benefits 
  and pressures from immigration. It won’t be enough to say that it has been great for food and football if people remain so concerned that impacts on jobs and housing aren't addressed. People want integration to work . . .  we don't want segregated schools in multi-ethnic towns but don't think which cricket team people cheer for is important.
• While 16% of the mostly retired 
  65 plus age group ranked immigration as their number one concern, half of that, 8%, of the 16-24s did, and only 5% of the 25-34 age group.
• Housing is where public fear impact of 
  immigration has hit hardest. Some 51% . . . support the idea that government should encourage mixed schools.
• Most people don’t do too badly when asked to estimate roughly how many people in Britain were born abroad - but they massively exaggerate the number of refugees in Britain . . . Four out of ten people believe that more that 10% of the population, six million people, are refugees. And one in 20 believe that most people in Britain today have been granted asylum.

The study touches on many other issues, such as the Tebbit cricket test and whether immigration has been good for British cuisine.

A couple of other articles well worth reading this week are this one on the link between unemployment and immigration, and this one on the future of anti-racism in Britain.