What Yorkshire folk think about migration - 2025 opinion poll
Find out what people in Yorkshire and Humber think about migration
This poll asked people across the region about a range of issues related to migration. Focaldata interviewed a representative sample of 2,557 adults aged 18+ who live in Yorkshire and Humber via an online survey between 22 August and 1 September 2025. The results have been weighted and are representative of all adults aged 18+ living in Yorkshire and Humber. The following tables group together answers, for example those that were generally positive or generally negative and so on, in order to provide an overview of the results. Percentages may not always total 100 due to rounding.
You can watch the summary in the video below, view the results on this page, download our summary of opinion poll results (Excel file, 109 KB), and read this briefing highlighting some of the key findings.
Questions and answers
Q1: On a scale of 0 to 10, has migration had a positive or negative impact on Britain? (0 is 'very negative', 10 is 'very positive')
| Positive | 35% |
| Negative | 48% |
| Neutral | 17% |
Q2: On a scale of 0 to 10, has migration had a positive or negative impact on your local community? (0 is 'very negative', 10 is 'very positive'.)
| Positive | 32% |
| Negative | 42% |
| Neutral | 26% |
Q3: Have your views about migration changed in the last couple of years?
| Become more positive | 13% |
| Become more negative | 52% |
| Stayed about the same | 33% |
| Don't know | 3% |
Q4: Which of the following best describes your relationship with migrants in your local community?
| I often speak with migrants living in my local community, and they are part of my regular social circle | 15% |
| I sometimes speak with migrants living in my local community, but they are not part of my regular social circle | 35% |
| I rarely or never speak with migrants living in my local community, and have very few interactions with them | 32% |
| I am not aware of any migrants in my local community | 18% |
Q5: Thinking about the migrants in your local community, to what extent, if at all, do you think they are integrated in the local community?
| Well integrated | 34% |
| Not integrated | 44% |
| I am not aware of any migrants in my local community | 14% |
| Don't know | 9% |
Q6: Thinking about day-to-day life in your local neighbourhood, what are your experiences of people from outside the UK? Please explain your answer in a few words. [Respondents' written answers have been subsequently analysed and coded as 'positive', 'negative' or 'other'.]
| Positive | 34% |
| Negative | 21% |
| Other | 45% |
Q7: Some migrants are people who have fled their country due to war, violence, or persecution and asked the UK Government for international protection as a refugee. They are sent to live in different parts of the UK, including Yorkshire and Humber. Which of the following comes closest to your view?
| Yorkshire and Humber should host its fair share of the UK's refugees (that is, in proportion to its total population) | 46% |
| Yorkshire and Humber should host more refugees than this | 5% |
| Yorkshire and Humber should host fewer refugees than this | 35% |
| Don't know | 13% |
Q8: In your opinion, how welcoming, if at all, do you think Yorkshire and Humber is to refugees and people seeking asylum?
| Welcoming | 51% |
| Not welcoming | 31% |
| Don't know | 17% |
Q9: Thinking about riots and protests at hotels accommodating asylum seekers, last summer and more recently, which of these statements comes closest to your view?
| People taking part in these riots and protests speak for me | 24% |
| People taking part in these riots and protests do not speak for me | 59% |
| Don't know | 17% |
Q10: People migrate to the UK for a number of reasons. Please indicate if, generally speaking, you support or oppose each of these entry routes to the UK?
| Support | Oppose | Don't know | |
| Through government refugee/relocation schemes for specific nationalities (currently limited to Ukraine, Afghanistan and Hong Kong) | 53% | 24% | 22% |
| Claiming asylum in the UK (the only way to be accepted as a refugee for someone from a country other than Ukraine, Afghanistan and Hong Kong) | 37% | 40% | 24% |
| To work | 66% | 22% | 12% |
| To study | 67% | 20% | 13% |
| To join family members | 43% | 36% | 21% |
Q11: People migrate for a variety of reasons. Thinking about people born outside the UK who are living in Yorkshire and Humber, if you had to guess, what percentage do you think are currently in the asylum system?
| Very low (0% - 19%) | 42% |
| Low (20% - 39%) | 26% |
| Medium (40% - 59%) | 15% |
| High (60% - 79%) | 11% |
| Very high (80% - 100%) | 6% |