The Drivers of Immigration Attitudes in Britain Post EU-Referendum

Immigration was one of the defining issues in the UK’s Referendum on EU membership in June 2016. A number of studies have demonstrated that immigration attitudes were also as a significant and sizable determinant of vote choice. Far less attention, however, has been placed on what drives public perceptions on immigration in the context of the Brexit vote. In this paper, we analyse original public opinion evidence of a representative survey (n=1,500) conducted in October 2017, comparing the immigration attitudes of ‘Leave’ voters, with those that voted in favour of ‘Remain’. The explanatory power of two competing theoretical approaches is assessed, Realistic Conflict Theory, with an emphasis on the importance of material conditions, and Symbolic Politics Theory, with significance on cultural or ideational ‘resources’. Unsurprisingly, results show a substantial divide between Leave and Remain voters regarding the perceived threat posed by immigration, in the expected direction. Yet, there is further divergence between the two camps: economic factors are viewed as more important by Remain voters whereas cultural factors are of greater significance for Leave voters. Overall, our paper contends that drivers of immigration attitudes are far from homogenous and that accounting for a polarised attitudinal terrain is vital to understanding UK politics post-Brexit and immigration attitudes more broadly.