Results from a recent survey by Oxford University show how woefully ill-informed is the British population on the vexed topic of immigration. No surprises really, given the constant diet of misleading headlines from the usual right-wing newspapers.

The most worrying aspect in all this is that 60 percent of those polled believed that the main reason people came to the UK was to claim asylum. On the basis of that mistaken belief 56% wanted to see a cut in asylum seeker numbers.

Wrong on two main counts! In fact only around 4%, yes 4% of all migrants are asylum seekers. Secondly, asylum and immigration policy are different things. People seek asylum under the aegis of the United Nations Refugee Convention. So the government cannot just cut the number of people who seek asylum in this country. (although deciding not to get involved in foreign wars e.g. Iraq and Afghanistan, might be a start!).

The survey, undertaken by the Migration Observatory, also showed that people were least concerned by the numbers of foreign students coming to study in the UK, although, in fact, students constitute the largest group of immigrants to the UK with migrant workers – those seeking work, not asylum – coming next.

The general ignorance seems to stem from a concerted effort by newspapers such as the Daily Mail and the Daily Express to blur the substantial difference between the different categories along the general line that ‘they are all foreigners and we don’t want them here.’ There is also the emphasis on what such ‘immigrants’ cost rather then what they contribute to society.

The survey did not ask people to state where they felt most asylum seekers made for; a question that would also no doubt have generated an equal degree of misunderstanding. The most recent figures show that Britain was only fifth in the league table of industrialized countries from which asylum seekers claimed asylum (that is claims not actual granting of asylum!) Most claimants headed for the US, then France, then Germany, then Sweden.

The debate over immigration into the UK will continue to feature high on the political agenda but before the issue can be properly addressed, by all sides of the political spectrum, there must be far greater clarity in precisely who is being talked about.

Phil Cooper 28/10/11