Migration misconceptions: what to watch out for as immigration tops the news agenda
Last Monday the government unveiled a series of new immigration restrictions as part of its much-anticipated immigration white paper, and the same topic will likely be top of the news agenda again later this week, with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) set to publish new net migration estimates on Thursday.
In recent years immigration has re-emerged as one of the top concerns among the British public—but misconceptions about migration persist, and aren’t limited to just one side of the debate. At Full Fact, false or misleading claims about migration are among the most common we fact check.
Honesty in public debate matters
You can help us take action – and get our regular free email
What we‘re seeing
As part of our work fact checking claims on Meta platforms, such as Facebook, we regularly examine posts about the scale of migration, support available to ‘illegal immigrants’, and crimes supposedly committed by migrants.
Common claims
Claims comparing financial support or other ‘benefits’ supposedly available to asylum seekers or other migrants with that available to British nationals—and in particular pensioners—are particularly common online.
We’ve also fact checked politicians from a range of parties and the media who have made misleading claims about migration—for example, we’ve recently seen several Labour politicians overstate the number of people who have been “deported”.
A complex issue
There’s no denying that migration is a highly complex issue—even the official statistics come with some level of uncertainty—and one that is clearly highly emotive for many people.
But given this, and the scale of misinformation prevalent online, in politics and in the media, it’s even more crucial that politicians and others ensure that the immigration debate is based on reliable, accessible and accurate information.
Ahead of the publication of new net migration statistics this week, here are some key points to bear in mind:
- Quantifying ‘illegal immigration’ isn’t straightforward. While the term is widely used, it’s inherently difficult to quantify, with different definitions and terminology existing for what it actually means (for example, some figures look at people who entered the country illegally, while others include people who overstay their visas). The ONS figures do capture some illegal migration (most notably, small boat arrivals), but the most recent official government estimate of the number of people in the country illegally was published in 2005 (though other estimates have been made more recently, as we’ve explained previously).
- The stats aren’t set in stone—revisions are common. Previously published migration data can often be revised upwards or downwards at a later date (this is the case with other data, like that for GDP, too). This is sometimes framed in the media as evidence that the data is inaccurate or unreliable, but the nature of migration statistics means that there are always likely to be revisions as more information becomes available. The ONS is also currently working to improve its migration statistics, so some revisions come about as a result of methodological changes.
- Keeping count of the number of migrants is complex. Collecting migration data isn’t as simple as counting people in and out of the country. Millions of people arrive in the UK every year, but not all of them will go on to become long-term international migrants—this often won’t become clear until well after they initially arrive in the country. The ONS statistics also look at why people migrate to the UK, and this often can’t be captured simply by looking at arrivals data.
If you spot any bad information about immigration, please contact us. We might be able to check it, ask for it to be corrected, or—if it is on a Meta platform like Facebook—rate it so Meta can refer its users to fact checking articles.
With the future of this work with Meta in doubt, Full Fact has set out key recommendations to ensure that accurate information is made available in a timely fashion to as many people as possible. For more information, read the Full Fact Report 2025.