Immigration improves our food and our culture
In a new YouGov survey conducted in seven European nations and the United States, half of those surveyed believe that the biggest benefit of immigration to our nation has been the introduction of better food. The only country that disagreed was France!
More than 8,000 people were asked whether immigrants had changed their national culture for the better. A third of them believed that having people from overseas made an improvement,
The most commonly cited disadvantage (with 60 per cent of respondents from Denmark, Sweden, German and Norway complaining) was an increase in crime. British people are more concerned about immigration’s effect on jobs (29 per cent) than other countries in Europe or America.
We are also more likely to believe that immigration has a negative effect on housing (45 per cent) and healthcare 37 per cent) than others.
Analysing whether the benefits of immigration outweigh the costs in general, the proportion of people who gave at least one negative answer was higher everywhere than those who were willing to give a positive one.
In the UK, around a third of those surveyed believed that immigration has had a totally detrimental impact, while a third of us said it has made a valuable contribution. This contrasts with attitudes in Germany, where more than half of those surveyed said that immigration has been wholly bad for their country.
