YouGov Poll: Israelis Now Second Least Wanted Migrant Group in Britain, Behind Only Russians

Nearly half of Britons want their government to sharply restrict or completely halt Israeli migration to the UK, according to a YouGov poll released last week and reported by Middle East Eye.

The survey found that 23 percent of respondents want fewer Israelis allowed into Britain, while another 24 percent want none admitted at all. That combined 47 percent puts Israelis just behind Russians as the least welcome migrant group in the country. Only 5 percent of Britons said they want to see more Israelis move to the UK.

By comparison, 34 percent of Britons said no Russian migrants should be allowed into the country, the only group polling worse than Israelis. Every other nationality tested, including Pakistanis, Indians, Turks, Egyptians and Nigerians, ranked above Israelis in public favorability, even though YouGov found all of these groups face some degree of unpopularity. For Indians specifically, only 15 percent of respondents said none should be admitted, less than half the share who said the same about Israelis.

Just 24 percent of Britons said the current level of Israeli migration is acceptable as is, and 23 percent said they simply don't know how they feel about it.

Why it matters

Polling on migrant nationalities is usually driven by economic anxiety, cultural distance or media coverage of crime and integration. Russia's standing at the bottom of the list is easily explained by its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions regime that followed.

Israel's position near the bottom is harder to explain through those conventional lenses. Israel is a wealthy, English-speaking-adjacent, formally allied democracy with deep economic and security ties to Britain. It is not the profile of a country whose citizens would typically rank among the least wanted migrants in a Western nation.

That gap between Israel's diplomatic standing and its citizens' migration favorability is itself the story. It suggests British public opinion is responding not to abstract stereotypes about Israelis as a nationality, but to nearly two years of war in Gaza, mass civilian casualties, the humanitarian catastrophe documented by UN agencies and human rights groups, and sustained global media coverage of the conflict.

Occupation Watch has not independently verified YouGov's underlying dataset or methodology beyond the figures reported by Middle East Eye. The poll appears internally consistent, with the comparative figures for Russians and Indians lining up with the stated rankings. No polling breakdown by age, region or political affiliation was included in the reporting reviewed.

Still, as a single data point, the finding is notable. It indicates that Israel's international reputational damage from the war in Gaza may be translating into concrete shifts in how ordinary Britons view Israeli citizens themselves, not just the Israeli state or its government's policies.