People living outside the nation’s capital were asked recently what words best describe London to them. ‘Crowded’ was the first, ‘Expensive’ the second, and ‘Cosmopolitan’ the third. The question was part of a wider survey to investigate people’s views on the growing sense that London is drifting apart from the rest of the UK; economically, politically and socially.
With the UK and Europe still reeling from extreme results in the European Parliament elections, immigration has once again become the domestic political vogue. Here in the UK, the success of a party who campaigned almost exclusively on the single issue of immigration has forced us all to look closely at our own attitudes and preferences toward this difficult yet important question.
As a quick glance at the maps shows, in the elections London was once again conspicuous when compared to the general UK trends. Much has been theorised as to why London failed to swing toward the UKIP bandwagon with much of the rest of the UK; education and relative economic success levels for example, however they may be another reason – London has more immigrants.
Could it be that because Londoners live amongst the reality of the vast majority of immigration to Britain – that is, hard working, open and proud – they have a different perspective to those in other areas of the country, where the closet some will come to believe that any ‘foreigner’ is a scare story on the front page of a tabloid? This is a theory certainly supported by the recent British Social Attitudes Survey, which found that 54% of Londoners think immigration has been beneficial for Britain’s economy, compared to an average 28% found elsewhere in the country.
The figures are clearly on Londoners’ sides. So the question must be asked as to where much of the rest of the country are getting their facts, or rather, opinions. Here the media must concede much of the responsibility. Reports detailing facts and figures about benefits of immigration to the UK – even during recent years of economic desperation – are often overlooked or ignored in favour of sensationalist, and even xenophobic coverage. Informed, rational debate over this and many other topics (e.g. Europe) is being stifled as many of the most popular media outlets attempt to force-feed opinions rather than offering balanced, or even factual arguments.
Everyone is of course entitled to their own views (within reason) on matters such as immigration. However what recent findings have shown are clear divides in the population that are so location-specific that they cannot be dismissed as natural difference of opinion. Clearly, a large number of foreign born workers is far from the only impetus behind London’s successes, however it would be naïve (or stubborn) to think that it has no relevance at all. It can be no bad thing to hold up London’s exception to the trends as the example – immigration can work in Britain, and people like it when it does.
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