Key points
- In 2024, 55% of respondents agreed that “it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country”. This was a significant decrease from 2023 (63%), and from 2017 (60%), the first year in the time series.
- 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 2024 (from 25% to 43%).
- In 2024, 63% of respondents agreed that people’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media.
- Over one-third (36%) of respondents in 2024 agreed that they would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees. This was a significant decrease from 2023 (44%), the first year in the time series.
- In 2024, just over one-half (51%) of respondents agreed that asylum seekers should have the same access to employment as the rest of the Northern Ireland population.
Background and introduction
This publication uses data from the Young Life and Times (YLT) survey to examine attitudes to asylum seekers and refugees among 16 year-olds in Northern Ireland.
In 2024, five questions relating to refugees and asylum seekers were asked. Three of these questions had been asked previously, with details provided below.
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)
- People’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media (asked for the first time in 2024)
- I would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees (asked since 2023)
- Asylum seekers should have the same access to employment as the rest of the Northern Ireland population (asked for the first time in 2024)
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, disability and ethnic group for 2024,
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 2024, 55% of respondents agreed with this statement - a significant decrease from the 60% who agreed in 2017. This was also a significant decrease from the 2023 figure (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 2024
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 2024, 55% 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, 15% disagreed and 9% 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”, 2024
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 significantly from 25% in 2017 to 43% in 2024. There was no significant difference between the proportion who agreed in 2023 (41%) and 2024 (43%).
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 2024
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 2024, 43% 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, and the proportions who disagreed and didn’t know were the same (16%).
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, 2024
Responses to the statement: “People’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media”
Figure 5 shows that in 2024, 63% agreed with the statement, 15% neither agreed nor disagreed, 9% disagreed and a further 13% didn’t know.
Figure 5: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that people’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media, 2024
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”. Responses from the full sample are shown in Figure 6 below. In 2024, 36% agreed with this statement. This was a significant decrease from 2023 (44%), when this question was asked for the first time.
Figure 6: Percentage of all respondents who agreed they would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees, 2023 to 2024
Figure 7 below shows that in 2024, over one-third (36%) of respondents agreed with the statement, 32% neither agreed nor disagreed, 18% disagreed and the remaining 14% didn’t know.
Figure 7: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that they would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees, 2024
Responses to the statement: “Asylum seekers should have the same access to employment as the rest of the Northern Ireland population”
Figure 8 shows that in 2024, just over one-half (51%) agreed with the statement, 18% neither agreed nor disagreed, one-fifth (20%) disagreed and a further 11% didn’t know.
Figure 8: Percentage of all respondents who agreed or disagreed that asylum seekers should have the same access to employment as the rest of the Northern Ireland population, 2024
Technical notes
Methodology
Young Life and Times (YLT) 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 who has not yet received a decision from the Immigration Authorities whether or not their application was successful or not.”
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 (asked since 2017)
- Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country (asked since 2017)
- People’s perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers are negatively affected by the media (asked for the first time in 2024)
- I would like more opportunities to get to know asylum seekers or refugees (asked since 2023)
- Asylum seekers should have the same access to employment as the rest of the Northern Ireland population (asked for the first time in 2024)
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, disability and ethnic group 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 2024 all questionnaires were completed
online.
Sample
The 2024 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, 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 2024 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 December 2023, January and February 2024.
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. In the second week of April 2024, a reminder letter was sent to those who had not completed the survey.
The HMRC dataset yielded 6,254 eligible names (with correct and complete addresses). These names were randomly split into two separate samples, with respondents invited to complete either survey Version 1 or Version 2.
Following the issuing of letters, 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 6,134 16-year olds.
A total of 2,210 valid responses were received, representing an overall response rate of 36%.
The response rate varied a little between Version 1 (35% - the refugee and asylum questions were included in this version) and Version 2 (37%).
2024 YLT data collection period
Data for the 2024 YLT survey was collected between 27 March and 27
April 2024.
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.
These official statistics are produced in compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Our Statistical policies and statements provide further details of how we apply the principles and practices of the Code in the production and publication of our official statistics.
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
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