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How Fleet Street misled its readers on immigration

The Mail, the Express and the Independent all inaccurately claimed that immigration rose by 20 per cent.

I blogged yesterday on how the Daily Mail misrepresented the latest migration figures by claiming that immigration had "soared by 20%". In fact, it was net migration - the difference between the number of people entering and leaving Britain - that rose by 21 per cent last year, mainly due to the lowest level of emigration since June 2005. The paper's journalists were, as I wrote, guilty of either extreme stupidity or extreme cynicism.

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But the Mail wasn't the only culprit. The front page of today's Daily Express, a paper which makes a special effort to mislead its readers on this subject, similarly declared: "Immigration soars 20% in a year". Yet as the ONS graph below shows, immigration has barely risen since 2004. The long-term immigration rate was 575,000 in 2010, up slightly from 567,000 the previous year - a 1.4 per cent rise, not a 20 per cent rise.

(Click graph to enlarge.)

How Fleet Street mislead its readers on immigration. 

Source: IPS, ONS Migration statistics quarterly report, August 25 2011

As Full Fact notes, the Daily Mirror and the Independent - papers that should know better - made the same mistake. But these errors, I suspect, were the result of ignorance. In the case of the Mail and the Express, however, there appears to be a calculated attempt to whip up prejudice and bigotry against immigrants. I'm a supporter of press self-regulation but its no wonder that some on the left call for statutory regulation when the tabloids continually lie about immigration and its effect on our society. As I noted yesterday, Sky News amended its headline after it too claimed that "immigration" had risen by 20 per cent. But the Mail and Express won't. Why do the papers lie about immigration? Because they can.

Tags: Daily Mail  Immigration

49 comments

Dickie1's picture

So ,Flashbuck, English Electric and 'The Luddite' must all work for the Mail. Who else would sound so angry in defense of a mere paper.

Flashbuck: there was a great piece about UFOs I notice! 'real facts' (as if there were any others). Not to mention the horoscopes.

Maybe the Mail is doing well, but I heard recently on Radio4 that the Guardian think the future is in compact and in-depth journalism, perhaps not daily, as people look to the net for news and comment. Sounds like our old friend the NS.

Interesting time ahead.

Barny's picture

"Flashbuck' must be sad indeed to haunt the web pages of this publication. The moniker says it all. I don't think it is the commenter formally known as buckskins is it?

'Deal with it, loser.' An insightful contribution to political debate? What a dull, unintelligent bore.

swatantra nandanwar's picture

A formal complaint to the Press Commission is in order. And lets have a hefty fine and an apology from these papers. They are a disgrace, whipping up unnecessary hysteria and are the stormtroopers of the EDL.

David's picture

RM

You think, based on the opinions of the Autotrader giveaway, that the New Statesman might one day be more popular than th Mail. Well I can't fault you for optimism.

Luddite's picture

Hello 1% how's dolly? fingers hurting.

Barny!!
We are right to be worried about the rise of immigration at a time of high unemployment and falling real wages.
Then people feel abandoned by Labour who do they turn?. Not to the far-left!! Somebody said 'the days of calling voters racist and Nazis won't wash anymore' both parties had better have some really good answers ready. This issue will not go away, and will be used to devastating effect against Labour. Because we all know who's to blame for turning our cities into third world war zones..

Sigur's picture

I feel significant concern about the population of the UK increasing to 70 million. I don't think it's disgraceful or hysterical to feel that way.

Whilst the headlines were inaccurate, the reports (and comments) below the headlines all stated that they were talking about net migration.

This article is a bit of a straw man. Perhaps the New Statesmen should take a deeper look at genuine concerns about rising population?

David's picture

swatantra

"whipping up unnecessary hysteria"

Why would you think that they are 'whipping up hysteria'? Surely everyone should be delighted with a twenty percent increase in immigration. Surely everyone can see what a benefit it is to half a million new arrivals a year. Maybe 20 million a year would be even better. I have to say though for someone concerned about hysteria you do seem a little worked up youself.

Luddite's picture

swatantra nandanwar: Wrong again..
'unnecessary hysteria' It's Labour's catastrophic immigration policy that's whipped up hysteria, not the daily newspapers.

Luddite's picture

David. That's just swatantra nandanwar she/he can at times become quite hysterical. Swatantra is also quite the rabid anti semite!!
David, there's nothing wrong with immigration, it's the quality and quantity that's the concern, and people have a right to be concerned, but needless to say you will be called a racist, it's the lefts only defence...

swatantra nandanwar's picture

A good analysis of these latest figures on 'Labour Uncut', the up and coming website which is not the mouthpiece of the Party.
The slight net increase is due to EU migrants, a trend which is likely to continue but only slightly as most of these EU migrants are transient and temporary and more likely to return to their roots in Eastern Europe.

shaheed 79's picture

You will not get the labour party worthies standing up to racism. Just like Callaghan in 1968, they will bend over backwards to appease the racists.The problem , it appears is that there are far fewer jobs offering tax-free earnings in the English Country Club, otherwise known as the Gulf States. Thus that is one avenue closed for economic immigrants from the UK.Any serious examination of the figures will show that the current figures for immigration are no higher that for 2004 but that the number of people leaving for their years in Provence and the UK Outpost for home-grown criminals and fugitives in Spain have diminished.There would be howls and screams from the crowd here if other countries exported the same numbers of their criminal fraternity to the UK as we do to Spain. But why let the facts bother us when there is the Daily Mail shouting 'Hurrah for the Blackshirts' once again, just like they stood shoulder to shoulder with the Mosley and fascists in the 1930's.Nothing changes much,does it. Time for a Prediction.Pretty soon, Tory fears will be realised and Miliband and his merry crew will lay into immigrants and Ethnic minorities and outflank the Tories from the Right.The BNP will once allege (correctly) that Labour has seen the error of its ways.And very few Black and Asian MP's will speak out against it.Depressing -yes.You certainly cannot rely on Labour to defend the weak, the poor and the disenfranchised, especially if they are immigrants.

Luddite's picture

shaheed 79: The facts are. To many are chasing to few jobs, and you don't help the unemployed by importing large numbers of low and unskilled workers, into an already depressed Labour markets.

'Labour to defend the weak, the poor and the disenfranchised' especially if they are immigrants. How many 'poor and disenfranchised' do you think we can take. 1 million. 2 million. 4 million. 10 million. 20 million. How many poor and disenfranchised, do we have in this world.. 80% want the door to immigrants closed.. So what makes you right, and the majority wrong?

Richard Albright1's picture

Labour's failure to build local authority housing to compensate for council houses that have been sold off under the tories, led to a fall of about half a million in the number of social homes available between 1997 and 2007. This, combined with high levels of immigration, has led to an increase of nearly 60% in the waiting lists for social housing England over the last eight years. The most severely affected were London where the proportion of households on the waiting list in 2010 was 12% and Yorkshire and Humberside where it was 11%. Both are regions of high immigration. Mass-Immigration beings nothing, but social problems to stable societies.

DEMB's picture

The Left's mantra in this debate seems to be "cry bigot! and let political correctness obfuscate genuine concerns..."

This journal as well as most others on the left are just as responsible as any on the right, in vociferously preventing any debate on immigration taking place without throwing around the 'bigot badge'.

Political correctness should not be used to prevent necessary debate. Few people for example may know that there has only ever been one Parliamentary Report into the effects of Immigration in the UK and it concluded that there was no evidence of any economic benefit to society. In addition to this, the waiting list for affordable housing in the UK currently stands at c.5m people.

Why is the left so afraid of discussing the concerns associated with immigration?

Stuart Eels's picture

I was going to join the debate but then read the name calling hysterical stupidity from both sides and thought no it's Saturday! Get a life all you losers on this post!

p j wall's picture

The reason some on here are called Bigots, It`s because they are!, There`s nothing wrong talking about immigration, but once some start saying "Blacks", "Asians", and "Savages"!!, how has that kind of language not got racial overtones!, My problem is, what`s skin colour got to do with immigration?, Obviously some on here are the usual attention seekers!, Cowards behind their computers, trying to justify their hatred with their concern by the lack of jobs or housing!, The Daily Heil, and Express, incite these prejudices, with their daily bile of "Scroungers", "Living in big houses", "Coming over here taking our jobs", "Labours open door policy", all of which is totally false!!, but spewed out as fact!, playing on the lowest form of prejudice!, IE: BNP, NF, EDL, etc, etc,.

David's picture

p j wall

I don't think you're really in the best position to be throwing around accusations of bigotry. Here is a short article from the Daily Mash, explaining it in a more amusing way than I could, if you can't see what I mean

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/word-%27bigot%27-loses-all-me...

Orthodoxcaveman's picture

"Most people are very grateful to The Daily Mail for giving us the big picture and reporting the real facts"

Like with Saddam's weapons of mass destruction or Britains traditional long standing support for the Gulf dictators?

Yakoub's picture

It's a bit simplistic, isn't it? Nasty right wing papers stirring up hatred, whereas supposedly nicer more lefty outlets just got it wrong. They all got it wrong, but are Indy journos so witless and/or rushed that they couldn't spend 10 minutes checking the Stats? Sure, the Mail/Express have a long history of telling tall stories about immigration - but it is perhaps because their editors are convinced that's what their lower-middle class readership want to hear? And is the they're convinced down to the fact they know their readers too well?

Luddite's picture

p j wall, calm down.. you appalling piece of shite... Does that up-set you.. You really do need to shake your fucking head.. and engage in the real world...

Benedict's picture

Luddite's just discovered swearing. In a few months he'll be sprouting his first pubic hair.

shaheed 79's picture

What a load of bile this lot spew out. I am just waiting for the Islamophobes to crawl out of the sewers and start blaming the Muslims.Who said the Left do not want to discuss immigration?
We just do not agree with you and the rest of the anti-immigrant brigade. And we will not let you walk all over us.
The bigotted journalists churn out their lies and distortions and this crowd says , please let us have some more.
Where are your figures to show that the people now coming here are 'low and unskilled'?
It is precisely because they have more skills and better qualifications that they are attractive to employers.
If they were low-skilled, they would be languishing on the dole.They could not compete with British workers.
Let Cameron and others legislate to force bosses to employ British workers with poorer qualifications. Let us how far they get with that before they face legal challenges. I would be happy to help fight cases for immigrants who have been discriminated against in this way.

p j wall's picture

Luddite;...Finally showing your true colours?, touched a nerve?, your reaction speaks for itself, your hate towards the ethnic minorities is shameful!, along with some of your other right wing attention seekers on here who rant hatred and venom!!, your reaction proves what i stated earlier, Cowards behind your computers!, you need to relax, seek professional help, you cant keep reacting like a petulant child who doesn`t get their own way!!, us grown ups are allowed opinions!!, Diddums, Diddums,.

shaheed 79's picture

What about some retribution against the likes of the Daily Mail/Daily Express so that they can be relieved of some of their ill-gotten gains? Perhaps they could be forced to donate 3 months of their gross turnover to a FUND that could be used solely to support Law Centres to provide free advice and representation for Immigration Appeals to the First Tier Tribunal and The Upper Tribunal.That way immigrants could not be claimed to be a drain on Legal aid and it would irk the right wing ranters here no end.

David's picture

p j wall

Yet another angry ranting post complaining about angry ranting.

"us grown ups are allowed opinions"

I'm not a fan of swearing on forums but no one has attacked your right to express an opinion. You have been the one constantly ranting at those you disagree with.

"you need to relax"

You need to take your own advice.

All those exclamation marks, going on about 'spewing' and 'ranting' and 'Daily Heil'. You do very much coming across as an example of an all to common type, the hateful bigoted left winger - constanting looking for things to be worked up and angry about.

shaheed 79's picture

Luddite.You have shown your stupidity for all to see.
Just for starters- I have absolutely nothing at all against Eastern Europeans and will not allow such distortions on your part to go unchallenged. We all know who the racist bigot is here and you personify such a low-life creature in all its magnificence.
How you can spout your vile diatribes and not even mention the A8 countries and their contribution to Net Immigration in the latest figures which the Article was about is beyond the comprehension of most sane people.
You just constantly show your insane hatred of non-white people.
Petulant Thug- That just about captures what you are about, mate

A. Cole's picture

The elephant in the room:

HOW HAS MASS IMMIGRATION BENEFITTED THE WHITE WORKING CLASSES?

(Direct answers will be appreciated!)

D. A. Ryan's picture

If everything the Daily Mail said about immigration was true, immigrants would now make up 250% of the UK population, all of them only over here to steal our jobs while all of them lived on benefits while paying no taxes, and engaging in rioting and terrorism in they’re spare time ;)

There is a certain percentage of xenophobic people in this country who just aren’t comfortable around “strangers”, local shop for local people and all that. The Daily Mail and other tabloids do a good job at pandering to such people’s paranoia.

Simmon's picture

Why not someone from public take these socalled newspaper to court for misleading innocent people?These type of papers should be banned just like news of the world which mislead people over 100 years.

harry hart's picture

It's no good expecting factual reporting from the Daily Mail. All you can do is make a few "inflammatory" remarks on their website and try to infuriate their online community.

Luddite's picture

p j wall
It's reactionary left-wing lunatics such as yourself that's giving socialism a bad name. To many are chasing to few jobs, and we don't help the unemployed by importing large numbers of low and unskilled workers, into an already depressed Labour markets. Millions of our young people, black, brown, and white are without employment because of the previous Labour government disastrous immigration policy.

Simmon. You don't have to state the bleeding obvious, we all know the extreme left hates a free press.

A. Cole (Direct answers will be appreciated!) The only people that have benefited from Labour's catastrophic social engineering experiment are exploitative employers, the biggest losers Labour's traditional supporters, that's why Labour sits in opposition and will stay in opposition.

swatantra nandanwar's picture

Whatever happened to the Spirit of Enterprise that made Britain Great? The 'get up and go' attitude accepting that nothing is impossible, and looking defeatism in the eye? if you have the will and inclination to seek it, you can do it.
BTW, all Govt is 'social engineering'. Taxes are social engineering because the are incentives and drive people in a certain direction. Planning and Town Planning is social engineering. Placing resources and industry and housing strategically.
I'm all in favour of 'social engineering' because its the only way society has of bringing order into what would otherwise be the chaos of 'laissez faire', when the most vulnerable get pushed to the wall and are left to fend for themselves.
Trdadtion' can be a good thing but also a hindrance, because it does not recognise the inevibility of change. We all, have to change, and evolve, because that is the nature of things.

shaheed 79's picture

So, now that cat is out of the bag. Why ask only about the white working class? Your EDL/BNP/Anders Brevik fifth column colours are showing.
So what is wrong for Black and Asian workers having:
1)their wives come and live with them, I am sure you would not deny that right to white workers.
2) Have their children live with them.
There is nothing wrong with family reunion.
Let Labour drift to the Right on this.
Let Balls have the Second Iraq moment when 100,000's of thousands deserted Labour.
The Asians and Black voters should walk away from Labour in their thousands and let them have another 20 years in opposition.

A. Cole's picture

Shaheed79

At the end of the day as taypayers in a democracy we have every right to say who should be allowed into this country and who should not.

We have neither the space or the resources to have open borders and become a host to all the people in the World.

Richard Albright1's picture

Many social ills spring from mass-immigration. The housing crisis is a direct consequence of the impact of immigration on the availability of social housing for working class Britains for far to long they have been airbrushed out there needs over looked or ignored. Either the government must cut immigration very substantially as they have promised or they must invest very large sums in the construction of extra social housing. Non EU migrants are more likely to live in social housing than UK born. For some nationalities the difference was striking:- Nigeria (29%), Iran (33%), Jamaica (35%), Ghana (39%), Portugal (40%), Bangladesh (41%), Turkey (49%), Somalia (80%) compared to UK born for whom the proportion was only 17%. This appalling injustice must not be allowed to continue.

El Ferhano's picture

Errrm... quick question Richard Albright, who are the majority, sorry big majority of people who claim benfits and live in social housing?

We have generations of families HERE in the UK who have never worked a day in their lives. Generations upon genrations of families who have lived in social housing. I would rather have mass immigrant workers coming in paying taxes and contributing to the system than our current predicament.

Personally, my opinion is that if we want to stop people coming into our country, then maybe we should pack up our forces and get out of theirs! We, the Brits started it, as silly as that may sound.

I love my country, but I cannot stand the hypocrisy or falsifying of facts spewed into so much of our social media.

Luddite's picture

El Ferhano 'falsifying of facts' hypocrisy!! We have generations of families HERE in the UK who have never worked a day in their lives. Ask yourself WHY!! 'paying taxes and contributing to the system' Many immigrantS pay little or no tax and contributed very little. my opinion is that if we want to stop people coming into our country, then maybe we should pack up our forces and get out of theirs! We, the Brits started it, as silly as that may sound. It does sound silly, did we go into the Sudan, Nigeria, Turkey, Somalia, Ghana. No El Ferhano we didn't.. 'who are the majority' OK lets give the British people a referendum on immigrations and let's see what the majority say.. AGREE!!

chrissy crane's picture

just watched one of your people on sunday morning live and what an arrogant and out of touch with what the majority of the public wants pratt he came across as,el ferhano, the long term people claiming benefits are mostly born here, for every one immigrant that works there's probably 6 or 7 on benefits or in jail, so if you want mass immigration I hope you let them stay in your back yard, after reading these lib/dem comments I know why I never read it but I had to know what the other 2 per cent read

p j wall's picture

The last comment has all the dignity and grace of a petulant thug!!, if you don`t like others opinions, just ignore them, no need for your constant vile abuse?, it`s left to others to judge what you clearly are?.

shaheed 79's picture

Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana- Are they by any chance in Eastern Europe?
Luddite- Have you not even bothered to notice that the latest figures which this ARTICLE IS ABOUT show that there was an EIGHTFOLD increase in net immigration from the A8 countries.
How comes you have failed to mention that?
Are you so full of hatred towards the non-whites that you have to pick on non-EU immigration?
How comes , in all your posts you have not mentioned that the WRS ended earlier this year?
What do you think that is going to do to immigration from the A8 countries?
It is obvious that you are motivated by a deep hatred for non-whites.
So, what is wrong in calling you a bigot?

Alex's picture

Have you seen the Mail's website? Far from giving 'the big picture' it almost soley focusses on American news and celebrity gossip.

Non Daily Mail Reader's picture

@Flashbuck 'reporting the real facts'. The real facts have just been reported above. 'a 1.4 per cent rise, not a 20 per cent rise.' But apparently your unable to see that. Either that or your just a moronic troll. Loser!

English Electric's picture

So right-wing papers 'lie', and left-wing papers are mistaken because of 'ignorance'.

Bit desperate George.

The Luddite's picture

How Fleet Street misled its readers on immigration. No!! Labour misled the public on immigrations.

Luddite's picture

shaheed 79. What the fuck have you got against Eastern Europeans you racist bigoted bastard...

matthew fox's picture

And Luddite misled people about Labour taxing bankers bonuses.

The circle is now complete.

shaheed 79's picture

Yet again they are caught in the act.They whip up racism and anti-immigrant hysteria. They are despicable.The NOWT saga showed how they were able to coerce the leading politicians through outright blackmail and threats.The right wing press and strident journalists have had a stranglehold in this country for too long.You will never convince the racists and the EDL trolls who appear to imagine that they have won the argument on immigration, but I for one am really glad that you are able to stand up and say it aloud- they are twisting the facts and spewing out blatant distortions.Thanks.

David's picture

Ah yes the Daily Mail. Source of all the worlds evils. Some might think that the Mail sells populism because populism is popular. Clearly not, clearly nobody would be concerned about immigration unless they were 'whipped up' by the Daily Mail. Without the Mail poeple would be saying 'half a million a year its nowhere near enough, why not five million a year or ten million a year, the more the merrier'.

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