Israelis second only to Russians among least wanted immigrants to UK, poll finds

Almost half of Britons think their country should allow in fewer Israelis or none at all; survey results significantly more negative toward Israel than 10 years ago

Almost half of Britons think the UK should allow fewer Israelis, or none at all, to migrate to the country, making them among the country’s most unwanted immigrants, second only to Russians, in a poll that asked about migrants from 23 countries.

According to the poll, just five percent of Britons think the UK should allow more Israelis to come to the country, while 24% think the current number is fine.

Twenty-three percent think Britain should allow fewer Israelis, and 24% none at all. The remaining 23% said they didn’t know.

The same poll was previously conducted a decade ago, in 2016.

A decade ago, 36% of Britons said the UK should allow fewer or no Israelis, compared to 47% today. The drop comes amid a general surge in anti-Israel feeling across the world since the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught set off wars in Gaza and across the region.

Israelis came in 22nd out of 23rd in the survey, with Britons being most positive about immigrants from Ireland, a country from which only 12% of respondents want to reduce immigration.

Last on the list, just below Israel, was Russia. Twenty percent of Britons said they wanted the same number or more Russians to be allowed to come to the UK, while 58% wanted fewer or none at all. The remaining 21% said they didn’t know.

This too represented a drop, with 13% more Britons today wanting fewer or no Russians than said the same a decade ago. YouGov attributed this to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

The survey noted which respondents had voted, during the 2016 Brexit referendum, to remain in the European Union and which had voted to leave it.

Among those who voted Leave, there was almost no change in the attitude toward Israelis, but among Remain voters, the attitude toward Israelis got more negative. Both groups became more negative toward Russian migrants, and more positive toward Polish ones.

The poll surveyed more than 2,053 adults in Great Britain on June 8-9 of this year. The margin of error was not immediately available. Additionally, some results in the survey added up to 99%, presumably as an artifact of rounding down.

There are few publicly available estimates of the number of Israelis in the UK. In 2011, there were approximately 25,000 Israelis living in Britain, according to Britain’s Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

The UK has seen a surge in anti-Israeli as well as antisemitic sentiment since the 2023 Hamas attack and subsequent Mideast wars.