How do Brits rate various immigrant groups? From Aussies to Somalis...

The figures come from YouGov research carried out on 24th and 25th April. The 1,668 adults interviewed are representative of the population's...

...political leanings and geographical distribution. Between 40% and 50% of the responses to each question about specific immigrant groups were either neutral (i.e. neither negative nor positive) or "don't know", which might simply reflect the fact that  - for instance - the Scots won't have much contact with members of most of these immigrant groups. It might also be a sign of innate good manners - a reluctance to offend. 

The survey was carried out in the wake of the Windrush scandal - that spectacular own goal scored by a weary, muddled, demoralised and poorly-led Tory government. The best explanation I've read for this monumental cock-up is that the tone-deaf officials who carried out the policy were probably remainers who, assuming that the leavers are all racists who hate immigrants, imagined that turfing out West Indian-origin Brits was what Brexiteers had voted for in the referendum! 

The positive attitude towards Jamaicans may have something to do with sympathy over - and a desire to signal disapproval of - the Windrush mess. One might have expected greater negativity, given street crime and London's stabbing epidemic, but perhaps Britons don't view the second and third-generation perpetrators as having much to do with the West Indies - and, of course, they associate West Indians with the (incomprehensibly) beloved NHS. But none of that explains the negative view of Nigerians, which genuinely surprised me (their approval rating was actually even lower in March 2017). There's evidently something going on out there I know nothing about: to be honest, I would have expected the Nigerians to be several places above Pakistanis. 

It's heartening to see that Poles are still well-regarded, despite (or perhaps because of) a massive influx of them into Britain in recent years - perhaps it's just that most people's interaction with Poles has been positive, as one would have expected. The research also seems to confirm Britons' generally warm feelings towards Indians. Germans? Seems like the war is over, and that they've been forgiven for inflicting all those losses at football (and for recently organising a Europe-wide Million Muslim Facebook party). And it's good to see the Americans still up there, despite the spectacularly negative, sneering coverage of Donald Trump's presidency. Where we live, the main new immigrant groups - apart from Americans - seem to be Italians, Spaniards and French folk. Those three don't get on the list, but I bet they'd receive extremely positive ratings - the only real worry I had over Brexit was that some of them might leave as a result of the referendum. 

As for the Romanians and Somalis - is anyone really surprised?  

For a nation of mean, miserable, intolerant, xenophobic racists, the British do seem to be surprisingly positive about foreigners!