THE POLITICS OF IMMIGRATION

• Ethnic minorities are distinctly more positive than white voters
about the contribution that immigration makes to Britain. The majority of
non-white Britons are part of the ‘anxious middle’, seeing both pressures
and gains from immigration, but lean towards seeing both the economic and
cultural gains of immigration as outweighing the costs.
Figure 26: What do ethnic minorities think about immigration?
Rejectionists Anxious middle Liberals
White 23% 63% 15%
Asian 6% 59% 35%
Black 3% 64% 33%
• Ethnic minority Conservatives are the most pro-migration
Conservative voters. Non-white Conservatives are not quite as positive
about immigration as ethnic minority Labour voters, but they are warmer
toward immigration than the median Labour voter. Overall, non-white
Conservatives hold a similar mix of views on the gains and pressures of
immigration to Lib Dem voters
UKIP was distinctly unsuccessful with ethnic minorities – winning
one in 50 votes, compared with one in six votes among white Britons. UKIP
did win around 60,000 ethnic minority votes – but 3.8 million of its 3.88
million votes came from white voters. The Survation poll shows that 15% of
ethnic minority voters say that they did or would consider voting for UKIP,
but two-thirds of non-white Britons say they would never vote UKIP.
By 70% to 8%, non-white voters thought that UKIP ‘risked bringing
prejudice into debates about immigration’, with 65% of ethnic minority
respondents saying they regarded the party’s contribution as ‘dangerous
and divisive’. 29% of non-white Britons regard UKIP as an ‘important new
voice’ saying what most people think.
Ethnic minority voters could be attracted by arguments for selective
and restricted immigration – such as an Australian-style points system –
but it is clear that Nigel Farage’s arguments, about immigration making
Britain “unrecognisable”, repelled most ethnic minority voters and made it
impossible for them to consider the party, even as his sentiments resonated
with some other sections of the electorate.
Farage has said that “the only people who think UKIP are racist are
white people, middle class white people”(3), arguing that this is part of the
“self-loathing” of the liberal elite. The Survation poll found otherwise - a
majority (55%) of ethnic minority respondents think the party can fairly be
described as ‘racist’, while 22% disagree and 24% don’t know. This clearly
demonstrates that the party has some way to go before non-white Britons
concur with the UKIP leader that the party is a moderate and inclusive
voice on race.
This aversion to UKIP does not mean that ethnic minority voters do
not want to see politicians talk about immigration. Ethnic minority Labour
voters are particularly positive about immigration – but the Survation
poll findings do not find any evidence to support the view that Labour’s
approach to immigration in 2015 was too tough for them. Across ethnic and
faith minority groups, only around one in ten voters suggested that Labour
talked ‘too much’ about immigration, while significantly larger numbers of
41 British Future / The Politics of Immigration