Immigration: behind the noisy headlines, a country divided

Those against immigration shout the loudest – but actually we're evenly divided, writes Robert Ford

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(Image credit: Getty)

IMMIGRATION is seldom out of the news, but the past month has seen attention spike to new highs as the removal of transitional controls on migration from Romania and Bulgaria has sparked furious debate. Many headlines suggest the British public is implacably opposed to migration, and demand radical action from the government to bring down migrant numbers.

The true picture, however, is more complicated, as revealed in data released today by the National Centre for Social Research from the 2013 British Social Attitudes survey, which is the most comprehensive academic survey of British public attitudes.

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