More than six times as many unionists as nationalists say the current level of immigration is too high.
Just 13% of nationalists and 10% of Alliance supporters believe too many migrants are coming here.
However, 82% of unionists think that is the case, according to a new LucidTalk poll for the Belfast Telegraph.
In the wake of anti-immigration protests and violent racist attacks earlier this month, we asked a series of questions on attitudes to immigrants.
The results show our society is divided largely along sectarian lines on these issues.
Some 41% of people believe the current level of immigration is too high, 37% say it’s about right, and 11% think it’s too low.
TUV voters are most likely to say it’s too high (89%), followed by DUP (88%) and Ulster Unionist (69%) supporters.
While Sinn Fein has hardened its position on immigration in the Republic after losing support over its liberal policy, there is no evidence its voters on this side of the border feel as strongly on the issue.
Just 14% say immigration is too high, as do 10% of Alliance and 4% of SDLP supporters.
Alliance voters are most likely to say immigration is too low (17%) followed by Sinn Fein (15%) and SDLP (12%) supporters. Just 1% of DUP, and zero TUV and UUP voters believe this is the case.
Nationalists (57%) and Alliance voters (55%) are most likely to say our immigration level is about right, but only 11% of unionists agree.
There are slight differences along gender and class lines.
Half of working-class people believe immigration is too high compared to just a third of middle-class voters.
And men are more likely to share this view (47%) than women (35%).
Some 3,443 people took part in our online poll conducted from August 16-19. The sample was scientifically weighted to reflect the Northern Ireland population.
Immigrants play a vital role in our health service and care sector. They also fill jobs across a wide range of economic sectors.
We asked if those coming to Northern Ireland are good or bad for our economy and society. A majority of people (59%) say they are good, while 26% believe they are bad and 11% are neutral on the issue.
Voters are again spilt along political lines. Some 83% of nationalists and Alliance supporters view immigration as positive for our society and economy, but only a quarter of unionists concur.
SDLP voters are most likely to view immigration as a force for good here (92%), followed by Alliance (82%) and Sinn Fein (81%) supporters.
Some 42% of UUP voters feel the same way, but only 19% of DUP and 8% of TUV supporters agree.
Violence broke out in south Belfast with businesses owned by ethnic minorities attacked after the first anti-immigration protest in the city on August 3. During the protest, some of those taking part were heard chanting far-right activist Tommy Robinson’s name.
Over half of people believe those taking part in anti-immigration demonstrations are mostly far-right sympathisers and from outside the area.
Just over a third (36%) of voters believe the protesters are mainly concerned local residents. However, views differ hugely according to political affiliation.
While eight in 10 nationalists and Alliance voters see the protesters as far-right, just a fifth of unionists share this opinion.
Only one in 10 nationalist and Alliance supporters view the protestors as concerned local residents, but almost three-quarters of unionists share this view.
While the protesters have accused the PSNI of being heavy-handed, some of the migrants whose businesses have been attacked allege police haven’t done enough to protect them.
Some 42% of people here believe the PSNI’s response has been just right, while 36% say it has been too lax and 15% too strict.
Only 1% of nationalists and 3% of Alliance voters think police have been too harsh, but a third of unionists share this view.
Over half of nationalists (52%), 42% of Alliance supporters and 17% of unionists believe the PSNI has been too lenient.
While those involved in racially motivated disorder in England and Wales have been charged and sentenced within days, the legal process has been much slower here.
Almost two-thirds of voters want fast track courts like those in Britain to deal speedily with rioters, but a quarter of people are against the proposal.
More than twice as many Alliance voters (88%) and nationalists support the idea than unionists (40%). Over half (54%) of those who vote DUP, UUP and TUV are against it.
by BelfastTelegraph
8 comments
These attitudes were clearly reflected in the reactions of politicians. Unionist politicians were quick to talk about the right to protest and legitimate concerns etc. They also dodged any questions about loyalist paramilitary involvement. Can we stop pretending this is a cross-community issue now just because one of the drug dealers waved a tricolour on his way to the UDA pub?
Of the major political parties in the South it is Sinn Fein voters/supporters who are the most opposed to Immigration.
Which makes sense when you realise that the loyalists here are more in touch with the hardliners on the mainland. The EDL, UKIP, BNP, Britain First (now the Reform party), they all exist in the same weird bubble reality where loudly complaining about non-existent issues (or massively oversimplifying complex issues) is used to try and garner support and hopefully political power.
Our local eejits don’t pal around with the Tories, they have a lot more in common with the more football hooligan type of right wing ‘patriot’. In fact there isn’t a single left wing loyalist party you can join even if you wanted to.
Just as a numbers game, if all the parties on one side are right wing and have the same extreme stance on immigration and the parties on the other side are mixed, then the people who follow the first group are by definition much more likely to take that same stance.
Any discussion around immigration North or South has been poisoned by the far right.
There’s far more immigration in the South than in the North and most Shinners or ex Shinners here are the most opposed as it affects them the most.
Fine Gael could import another 1 million and their voters would probably be happy as they’ll profit from it. SF have been cornered from this deliberately by FG and it’s working.
It’s a kind of paradox that settlers are often intolerant of later immigrants. Australia’s ‘white Australia policy’ which sought to block Asian immigration up to the 1970’s, and the much more recent ‘stop the boats’ rhetoric and offshore detention systems which inspired the Tories Rwanda policy and detention policies in the US too, are all of course born from a settler-colonial population only several generations old. Itself an immigrant population which first virtually eradicated the native population and later systematically persecuted and peripheralised them. You can see blatant anti-immigrant populism in Trumpian ‘build the wall’ chants too. This sad phenomena is clearly visible in Northern Ireland amongst historical settler colonial communities vs the general native Irish population. I’m not an expert on social anthropology but I feel there is an obvious pattern to be observed. Perhaps the colonial mindset is, deep down, a highly insecure one. Settlement in a frontier world would obviously come with built-in enemies, and it’s quite easy to see how xenophobic attitudes can be handed down through generations. Us vs them. These settler groups – and also their distant descendants – can be deeply subcultural, and foundational attitudes die hard. Perhaps the Irish communities in NI feel more secure that their culture will always endure and thrive (‘withstand’, if you want to term it defensively) in a shared environment. There is also the general cultural understanding and recognition amongst Irish communities (although clearly not everywhere in the Irish community) that Irish people have emigrated for all kinds of reasons – be that for better lives/opportunities or, at times in history, survival – and have a certain instinct towards solidarity for those who wish to seek the same in our island now.
Unionists are more exposed to UK media and journalism where the dover refugee boats are an issue and a polarizing aspect of immigration opinion.
Hard to argue immigration isn’t too high when its by far the highest its ever been