There is a lot more to immigration than simply totting up the net migration figures

The good news is that most people in Britain think that people in their local area mix pretty well  regardless of differences in race, religion and the rest of it. According to the latest Citizenship Survey from the Department for Communities and Local Government for April-September last year, about 85 percent of people think that their neighbourhood is cohesive, community-speak for the absence of overt ethnic and religious tension.

But when it comes to attitudes to immigration a slightly different view emerges. About 78 percent of Brits would like to see immigration reduced; well over half, or 54 percent, want to see it reduced a lot. That’s roughly the same level for the four years that this exercise in Cohesion Research has been underway.

And it’s especially interesting given the nature of the people interviewed. The core sample group is a representative 10,000 people from England and Wales. But there’s also an ethnic minority boost sample of 5,000 and a Muslim boost sample of 1,200 “to ensure the views of these groups are robustly represented”.