Immigration concerns multiply

Asylum seekers are a growing cause of public concern

Public concerns about immigration and race relations in Britain have dramatically increased in the past five years, according to a survey just published.

A total of 19% of people questioned cited the issue among the three most important problems in the UK, compared with just 3% in 1996.

It topped economy, education, drugs or Europe in the poll "What's Worrying Britain?," commissioned by the United Nations Population Fund.

A spokeswoman from the National Assembly Against Racism, Sabby Dhalu, attributed the rise to negative portrayal of asylum seekers in the media.

"It becomes an issue because they're reading about it but the reason the media have latched on to it is because the government have set that agenda," she said.

More than half of those questioned believed the government should spend more on foreign aid, according to the survey.

Two thirds of the 1,086 people questioned said they would like Britain to give financial support to education and prevention programmes against HIV and Aids in developing countries.

Europe-wide worries

Overall, immigration and race relations was considered the fourth most important problem behind law and order (33%), health (26%) and unemployment (23%).

But over the past five years concerns about unemployment and education have halved.

Similar surveys carried out in 13 other European countries found that overall unemployment was the top worry, as it had been in 1996.

BSE was the third largest concern across Europe as a whole but hardly registered in Britain.

The survey revealed that generally Britons are more charitable and community-spirited than their European neighbours.

Some 79% of Britons said they had made a donation to charity in the last few years compared with just 59% across Europe.

And 31% had done voluntary work compared with 17% in Europe.

The British public's greatest international concern was the environment and global warming (33%) followed by poverty (29%) and famine (17%).