Far-right fictions on immigration appear to still be having a corrosive effect on attitudes towards those fleeing persecution, as a new north of Ireland survey shows a collapse in support for migrants.
Stormont’s Executive Office looked at results for the year 2025, and found that now only 49% of people think the region should obey international law and let asylum seekers stay in the Six Counties.
Stormont is still subject to British law on immigration matters, which is in turn bound by Britain’s signing of the 1951 Refugee Convention. The agreement requires all signatories to ensure those fleeing persecution have the chance to claim protection in a safe country.
The authors of the Stormont report, entitled Attitudes to Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Northern Ireland 2025 say the 49% figure is:
…significantly lower than the corresponding figure for each year from 2018 to 2024.
The exact question researchers asked was:
Thinking about people who come to Northern Ireland to get away from persecution in their own country. How much do you agree or disagree that these asylum seekers should be allowed to stay in Northern Ireland?
Interestingly, a majority were in favour of assisting those with an unsafe home country when the authors rephrased the question. 57% agreed with the statement:
I think it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country.
Anti-migrant lies gain more ground among Protestants than Catholics
The figures predictably showed major differences in attitudes between Catholics and Protestants. 58% of the former thought asylum seekers should have the right to be in the north of Ireland, vs just 33% of Protestants. Catholics know what it is like to be persecuted and unfairly demonised, and consequently are more likely to recognise the fictions spread about refugees and asylum seekers.
There at least seems to be some self-awareness about the hostility migrants now face when they come to the north of Ireland fleeing war or other forms of persecution. Only 27% believe that the region is a welcoming place for those needing asylum. Three successive summers of violent pogroms against migrants, largely driven by loyalists, have proved these fears of hostility to be correct.
Belief in the north of Ireland being welcoming for migrants peaked in 2022, at 51%. This is the year when attitudes to new arrivals was most positive, likely in the wake of the Ukraine war. The mainstream media did its best to engender sympathy for Ukrainians suffering during war with Russia, frequently in an outrageously racist way. At the same time, they have continued to confect panics about those fleeing conflict from the Global South, often people fleeing criminal wars that Britain participated in.
Survey respondents also seemed to be aware of media manipulation, with 69% saying that:
…people’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media
The rich hoarding wealth is the real problem
The Refugee Council does a good job of debunking many of the myths spread by the media, alongside far-right liars. These malign actors like to tell us that refugees are chancers who are just coming our way to pick up a benefit cheque. Yet, as the Refugee Council point out:
The top ten refugee producing countries in 2021 all have poor human rights records or on-going conflict. People seeking asylum are fleeing from these conflicts and abuses, looking for safety.
The Home Office is hardly a body sympathetic to migrants, and is often issued instructions to make life as hard as possible for people who have reached Britain from abroad. Yet even then:
In the year ending June 2022, 76% of initial decisions resulted in a grant of asylum or other form of protection.
That means refugees aren’t scroungers, they’re people in genuine need of protection. The notion they might be freeloading is absurd, given the fact that:
People seeking asylum are often living on Home Office support equivalent to under £7 per day
The media and far-right, who often operate in lock-step, also love to claim migrants are living the high life in hotels. But ask yourself: would you give up your own home to go and live in a nondescript single room somewhere, thousands of miles from your family, with no kitchen and following someone else’s rules? Nobody would choose this, and migrants don’t either: they end up there out of desperation and necessity.
That these fictions are so easily debunked seems to be having little effect, however. People are understandably angry about stagnant wages, a rising cost of living and failing public services. Yet these problems are caused by a tiny minority who have hoarded virtually all of society’s wealth.
They have no interest in giving it up to pay their workers properly or chip in with their taxes to pay for proper health care or transport. They therefore pay off politicians, buy up media outlets, and fund far-right goons, all to spread fictions blaming migrants for countless social ills. This utter shit continues to stick, as this latest survey sadly proves.
Featured image via the Canary
