New figures showing that net migration to the UK has fallen sharply — reaching its lowest level since the Covid pandemic — should, in theory, have transformed the tone of British political debate. Yet new research from British Future reveals a striking paradox: despite the substantial fall in migration, around half of Britons still believe immigration is increasing.

This disconnect is not simply a misunderstanding of statistics. It reveals something deeper about the nature of contemporary migration politics.

The politics of immigration is not a response to public anxiety, but one of the mechanisms through which anxiety is continuously reproduced and politically organised, I argue in this piece for the LSE British Politics blog.