Migration panel exercise with The Times newspaper
Edward Shackle
Across Public First research, findings show that migration and asylum sit front of mind for voters. These views are strongly held and polarising on all sides of the political debate.
Public First partnered with The Times to test how entrenched people are in their views and perceptions around migration. To do this, participants were recruited from across the country and political spectrum, balanced to include a variety of views on migration, ranging from those who think the UK should be more welcoming, to those who favour harsher restrictions.
During the groups, participants were introduced to Medleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory, an impartial organisation that provides evidence-based analysis to inform policy debates.
After running participants through statistics on migration, government trade-offs between international law, such as the Refugee Convention, while addressing public pressure to reduce numbers.
We found that participants did not change their views, instead finding that the information given reinforced their pre-existing views, although participants acknowledged the issue was tougher than they had previously anticipated.
The full write up in The Times can be read here