Education is the Key Divide in UK Immigration Views, Study Reveals

Rightwing movements are struggling to gain support among graduates as education emerges as the most important dividing line in British attitudes towards politics, diversity and immigration, research has found. A study from the independent National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) found people with qualifications below A-level were more than twice as likely to support rightwing parties compared with those with qualifications above. The Demographic Divides report says: “A person with no educational qualifications had around 2 times the odds of voting for either the Conservatives or Reform UK than someone with a university degree or higher. This is independent of other factors, including financial precarity, so those without a degree are more likely to support rightwing parties in the UK even after adjusting for their financial situation. “If one wanted to predict whether a person voted for parties of the right in the UK, knowing their educational background would give them a very good chance of making a correct prediction.” The findings are to some extent mirrored in the US, where people with a high school education or lower were twice as likely as college graduates to support Donald Trump over Kamala Harris in 2024. The report says: “Rightwing movements in both countries share a common difficulty in gaining support among those who have been through higher education and obtained a degree.” Education divides attitudes on race, diversity and immigration more strongly in the UK than in the US, according to the study. In the UK, the research found 65% of people educated to degree level or above thought diversity strengthened society, compared with 30% of people educated to A-level or below. In the US, 74% of college graduates thought diversity strengthened society, compared with 54% educated to high school level or less. When asked how far white people benefited from advantages in society that Black people did not have, 60% of people with a university or college degree in both countries said “a great deal” or “a fair amount”. Only 30% of those with qualifications below A-levels or less thought this in the UK, and 50% of high school graduates or lower in the US. The research found 55% of people in the UK with below A-level qualifications thought immigrants living in the country without permission should not be allowed to stay, compared with 36% of degree holders. In the US, 32% of university graduates believed undocumented immigrants should not be allowed to stay in the country, compared with 40% of people educated to high school level or below. The researchers found that in the US factors other than education played a significant role in predicting party support, including ethnicity, gender, financial precarity and location – with white voters, men, rural voters and people “just meeting their expenses” more likely to support Trump. Alex Scholes, a research director at NatCen, said: “Rightwing politics in the UK and the US are often compared, but our findings show they are built on different foundations. “In Britain, education stands out as the most important dividing line, particularly on immigration and diversity. In the US, support for the right reflects a much denser mix of identities, including ethnicity, religion, gender, age and economic insecurity. These differences help explain why political polarisation looks and feels different between the UK and US.”