Key points
- In 2023, 63% of respondents agreed that “it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country”.
- The proportion of respondents who agreed that Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country increased significantly between 2017, the first year of the time series, and 2023 (from 25% to 41%).
- In 2023, one-third of respondents (33%) agreed that refugees and asylum seekers are not respected in Northern Ireland.
- In 2023, less than one-half of respondents (44%) agreed that they would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees.
- In 2023, over three-quarters of respondents (78%) agreed that people fleeing the war in Ukraine should be allowed to come to Northern Ireland.
Background and introduction
This publication uses data from the Young Life and Times (YLT) survey to examine the attitudes of 16-year-olds to asylum seekers and refugees. The YLT survey is an annual survey of young people, aged 16, living in Northern Ireland.
Two questions about refugees have been included in each YLT survey since 2017. In 2023, a further three questions were added; two about refugees and asylum seekers, and one specifically about people fleeing the war in Ukraine. Respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the following statements:
- I think it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country (asked since 2017)
- Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country (asked since 2017)
- Refugees and asylum seekers are not respected in Northern Ireland (asked for the first time in 2023)
- I would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees (asked for the first time in 2023)
- People fleeing the war in Ukraine should be allowed to come to Northern Ireland (asked for the first time in 2023)
The responses to these five questions are the focus of this publication.
Comparisons over time are made for the full sample where the data is
available. Supplementary data tables accompanying this
publication, with breakdowns by gender, religion and disability for
2023, are available on the
Executive
Office website.
Technical overview
Changes over time have been tested for statistical significance. These have been highlighted in the commentary.
Further information on statistical uncertainty (confidence intervals and significance differences) has been provided in the Technical notes, with full detail provided in the supplementary data tables.
The Technical notes also include further information on the YLT survey, questions asked, definitions and analysis provided.
Note: Throughout the publication, response options ‘Strongly agree’
and ‘Agree’ were merged into an ‘Agree’ category. Response options
‘Strongly disagree’ and ‘Disagree’ were merged into a ‘Disagree’
category.
Responses to the statement: “I think it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country”
Respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the statement “I think it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country”. Responses from the full sample are presented in Figure 1. In 2023, 63% of respondents agreed with this statement, compared with 60% in 2017; this difference was not statistically significant. There was also no significant difference between the proportion who agreed in 2022 (66%) and 2023 (63%).
Figure 1: Percentage of all respondents who agreed that “it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country”, 2017 to 2023
Note.
Due to exceptional circumstances the survey was
not conducted in 2020.
Over the years, the survey moved
from paper-based to online methodology. This was trialed in 2019, when
46% of respondents completed the online version. From 2021, the survey
has been predominantly online based.
For more information
please see Technical notes.
Figure 2 shows that in 2023, 63% of all respondents agreed that “it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country”. Just over one-fifth (21%) neither agreed nor disagreed, 9% disagreed and 8% said they didn’t know.
Figure 2: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that “it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country”, 2023
Responses to the statement: “Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country”
Respondents were then asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed that “Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country”. Figure 3 presents the responses from the full sample. The percentage of respondents who agreed with the statement increased from 25% in 2017 to 41% in 2023 and this was a significant change. There was no significant difference between the proportion who agreed in 2022 (38%) and 2023 (41%).
Figure 3: Percentage of all respondents who agreed that Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country, 2017 to 2023
Note.
Due to exceptional circumstances the survey was
not conducted in 2020.
Over the years, the survey moved
from paper-based to online methodology. This was trialed in 2019, when
46% of respondents completed the online version. From 2021, the survey
has been predominantly online based. For more information please see Technical notes.
Figure 4 shows that in 2023, 41% of all respondents agreed that Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country. One-quarter (25%) neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement, 17% disagreed and 16% didn’t know.
Figure 4: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country, 2023
Responses to the statement: “Refugees and asylum seekers are not respected in Northern Ireland”
Respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the statement “Refugees and asylum seekers are not respected in Northern Ireland”. Responses from the full sample are presented in Figure 5 below. In 2023, one-third of respondents (33%) agreed with the statement, 29% neither agreed nor disagreed, 19% disagreed and a further 18% didn’t know.
Figure 5: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that refugees and asylum seekers are not respected in Northern Ireland, 2023
Responses to the statement: “I would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees”
Respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the statement “I would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees”. Figure 6 below shows the responses from the full sample for 2023. Forty-four percent of respondents agreed with the statement, 29% neither agreed nor disagreed, 13% disagreed and another 13% didn’t know.
Figure 6: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that they would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees, 2023
Responses to the statement: “People fleeing the war in Ukraine should be allowed to come to Northern Ireland”
Respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the statement “People fleeing the war in Ukraine should be allowed to come to Northern Ireland”. Figure 7 below shows the responses from the full sample for 2023. Over three-quarters (78%) of respondents agreed with the statement, 11% neither agreed nor disagreed, 6% disagreed and another 5% didn’t know.
Figure 7: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that people fleeing the war in Ukraine should be allowed to come to Northern Ireland, 2023
Technical notes
Methodology
Young Life and Times (YLT) survey is an annual survey run by Access Research Knowledge (ARK). ARK is a social policy hub, established in 2000 by researchers at Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast. Every year, ARK administer the survey to a sample of young people, aged 16, living in Northern Ireland.
In the questionnaire, refugees were defined as “people who have been given permission to stay in the UK because they have been persecuted in their home country.”
An asylum seeker was defined as “someone seeking refugee status but who has not yet received a decision from the Immigration Authorities whether or not their application was successful.”
After being provided with these definitions, respondents were asked: “How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about refugees and asylum seekers generally?”
- I think it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country.
- Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country.
- Refugees and asylum seekers are not respected in Northern Ireland.
- I would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees.
Then they were asked: “How much do you agree or disagree that people fleeing the war in Ukraine should be allowed to come to Northern Ireland?”
The response options for all five questions were:
- Strongly agree
- Agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Disagree
- Strongly disagree
- I don’t know
This publication presents findings for the overall sample. Breakdowns
by gender, religion and disability are included in the supplementary
data tables accompanying this publication.
Move to online survey
Until 2018, YLT survey was primarily a postal survey. The viability
of conducting the survey online was tested in 2019. This approach proved
successful, with 46% of respondents completing the online version. A
decision was therefore taken to move, primarily, to online completion
from the 2021 edition onwards. Postal or phone completion continue to be
offered as an alternative, but in 2023 all questionnaires were completed
online.
Sample
The 2023 survey sample was taken from the Child Benefit Register, which contains information on all children for whom Child Benefit is claimed. Since April 2013, Child Benefit payments have been means tested. However, the HM Revenue and Customs, who administer the Child Benefit payments across the UK, still hold the names and addresses of those 16-year olds who were affected by the Child Benefit Payment changes and also those whose parents have opted out of receiving Child Benefit. As such, the Child Benefit Register is the most suitable sample frame for the YLT survey.
The 2023 survey sample included the names and addresses of all 16-year olds from the Child Benefit Register, who were living in Northern Ireland and celebrated their 16th birthday in January, February or March 2023.
Potential participants received a letter inviting them to take part in the survey. Each letter contained a unique identifier code required to access the online survey. One reminder letter was sent to those who had not completed the survey at a later date.
The HMRC dataset yielded 5,695 eligible names (with correct and complete addresses). These names were randomly split into two separate samples, with respondents invited to complete either survey Version A or Version B.
Following the issuing of letters, a further 68 names were removed (due to letters being returned as undelivered, or young people or their parents/carers opting out/informing ARK they were ineligible). This left an overall base sample, across both versions of the survey, of 5,627 16-year olds.
A total of 2,065 valid responses were received, representing an overall response rate of 36.7%.
The response rate was similar between Version A (35.3% - the refugee
and asylum questions were included in this version) and Version B
(37.2%).
2023 YLT data collection period
Data for the 2023 YLT survey was collected between 31 March and 8 May
2023.
The 2020 YLT survey
YLT is an annual survey, but due to exceptional circumstances it was
not conducted in 2020.
Variable coding
Response options ‘Strongly agree’ and ‘Agree’ were merged into an
‘Agree’ category. Response options ‘Strongly disagree’ and ‘Disagree’
were merged into a ‘Disagree’ category.
Statistics
When interpreting the findings in this publication, please note the following:
Rounding
Percentages within this publication have been rounded to the nearest
integer and may therefore not sum to 100%.
Confidence intervals and statistical significance
The supplementary data tables include detail on the 95% confidence intervals for each estimate. A confidence interval gives an indication of the degree of uncertainty of an estimate and helps to explain how precise it is. The wider a confidence interval is, the less precise the associated estimate is.
Statistically significant differences over time have been highlighted in the report, with full detail, including differences between demographic groups, presented in worksheets 6a to 6e in the supplementary data tables. If two estimates are significantly different from each other, it means that the difference between them is unlikely to have occurred by chance. All tests were conducted at .05 significance level. This means that if a difference between two estimates is reported as significant, there is less than (<) 5% probability that the result was due to chance. The base numbers and percentage estimates have an effect on statistical significance. Therefore, on occasion, a difference between two estimates may be statistically significant while the same difference in percentage points between two other estimates may not be statistically significant. The reason for this is that the larger the base numbers or the closer the percentages are to 0 or 100, the smaller the standard errors. This leads to increased precision of the estimates which increases the likelihood that the difference is significant.
More information on statistical uncertainty can be found on the
ONS
website.
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.
Reader information
Contact
TEO Analytical Unit
The Executive Office
Castle Buildings
Belfast
BT4 3SR
Email: analyticalunit@executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk
Telephone: 028 9076 5766
Media enquiries should be directed to The Executive Office press office: press.office@executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk