Attitudes to Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Northern Ireland 2023

Date published: 11 December 2024

This report analyses data from the Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) survey, examining public attitudes to refugees and asylum seekers in Northern Ireland.

Key Findings

• The proportion of respondents who agreed that asylum seekers should be allowed to stay in Northern Ireland has increased significantly between 2018, the first year of the current time series, and 2023 (from 54% to 61%). This did, however, decrease significantly between 2022 and 2023 (from 70% to 61%).
• Between 2022 and 2023, there was a significant decrease (from 51% to 39%) in the proportion of respondents who agreed that Northern Ireland is a society that welcomes refugees escaping persecution in their home country. The 2023 figure was the same as the figure reported for 2019, the first year of the current time series.
• The proportion of respondents who agreed that ‘it is our duty to provide protection to refugees who are escaping persecution in their home country’ has decreased significantly from 76% in 2022 to 68% in 2023. The proportion for 2023 was not significantly different to that reported for 2019 (65%), the first year of the current time series.
• A further seven questions were asked for the first time in 2023 and responses to these are included in the main report.

The report and associated data tables are available on the Statistics and Research section of the Executive Office website.