Are Immigrants in Favour of Immigration? Evidence from England and Wales

Using the UK Citizenship Survey for the years 2007–2010, this paper investigates how immigrants view immigration and how these views compare to the views of natives. Immigrants who have been in the UK longer are similar to natives in being opposed to further immigration, while recent immigrants are more in favour of further immigration. Labour market concerns do not play a large role for either immigrants or natives. However, there is some evidence that financial and economic shocks can increase anti-immigration sentiments.