Key findings from the 2025 Migration Yorkshire opinion poll

Summary

Public attitudes towards migration have become less positive since 2023 in Yorkshire and Humber, with fewer people seeing migration as beneficial to Britain and over half saying their views have become more negative in the last couple of years. While support remains strong for migration to work, study or arrive through government refugee schemes, it drops for asylum and family reunification. People are less likely to see the region as welcoming to refugees, and to think that migrants are well integrated. Younger people and city centre residents remain the most positive about migration, but across Yorkshire and Humber, support for the region hosting its ‘fair share’ of refugees is declining.     

Top level findings 

• Positive views on the impact of migration on Britain have fallen from 40% to 35% compared to the 2023 poll. Meanwhile, negative views have increased from 38% to 48% in the last 2 years.
• Half (52%) of adults’ views on migration have become more negative over the last couple of years, outstripping the 35% that reported they had become more negative in 2023. This increased negativity can be seen across all local authority areas in Yorkshire and Humber.
• Nearly half (46%) of adults think that Yorkshire and Humber should host its fair share of refugees, compared to 54% in 2023. 35% think the region should host fewer refugees, increasing from 30% in the last poll.
• A majority of respondents support people migrating to the UK to study (67%), to work (66%), and through government refugee / relocation schemes for specific nationalities (53%). However, this support drops for people joining family members (43%) or claiming asylum in the UK (37%). 
• The proportion of those who rarely or never speak with migrants living in their local community, and have very few interactions with them, has increased from 28% to 32% since the 2023 poll.          
• There has been a decline in the proportion of people who see the region as welcoming to refugees, from 57% in 2023 to 51% in this poll.
• One-third (34%) of adults think migrants are well integrated in the local community, a fall from 41% from the first poll in 2020. The percentage of people thinking migrants are not well integrated has increased from 38% to 44%.
• A quarter (24%) of adults think that people participating in riots and protests at hotels accommodating asylum seekers speak for them, while 59% think the opposite. Men were significantly more likely to feel represented by the riots and protests (28%) compared to women (20%).
• In line with 2023 findings, looking at the location of respondents, people living in city centres were most likely to express positive views on the effects of migration (53%). They were also least likely to express negative views (29%).
• Also similar to findings in the last poll, younger people below the age of 45 are significantly more positive when asked about the impact of migration on Britain (44%) compared to older people (27%).

Methodology 

Migration Yorkshire commissioned Focaldata to run a large-scale poll. Data was collected from a representative sample of 2,557 adults (18+) living in Yorkshire and Humber between Friday 22 August 2025 - Monday 1 September 2025. The data has been weighted by age, gender and education level, and the sampling approach was consistent with the weighting approach taken when this poll was last run in 2023. 

About this briefing

This briefing was prepared by Focaldata and Migration Yorkshire in December 2025. For further information, contact us at research@migrationyorkshire.org.uk.