Four out of 10 white people in Britain do not want an Asian or black Briton as their neighbor, according to a survey published this week.
The opinion poll found rocketing concern about immigration and asylum combined with ignorance about basic facts about the issue and growing resentment.
The Mori survey for Prospect magazine found that 39 percent of those asked would prefer to live in an area only with people from the same ethnic background. Forty-one percent of whites and 26 percent of ethnic-minority people surveyed wanted the races to live separately. Over half of all ethnic groups wanted to live in diverse areas.
The poll found older people were most in favor of living apart from other races. Only 40 percent of people over 55 disagreed with the idea, compared with 64 percent of 16- to 34-year-olds.
Bobby Duffy, research director at Mori, said: "We have overestimated the progress we have made in race and immigration issues. I'm surprised about such a high finding as people are usually reticent because they worry about being judged by the interviewer, so this finding is worrying."
The poll shows that the issue of race and immigration has risen up the list of people's concerns, and is now the third most important, ahead of crime, defense and the economy. The issue is ranked the most important by 29 per-cent, behind education on 33 percent and the health service on 41 percent. Ten years ago the figure was below 10 percent.
Mori said people had a "inflated view of the scale of the issue," with people overestimating the numbers of first-generation immigrants by four times the actual amount. Britons think that first-generation immigrants comprise 23 percent of the population, while the real figure is 6 percent.
"It's a monumental shift in people's concerns," Duffy said. "We've seen economic concerns decline and that seems set to continue, and a rise in concern about public services. The issue of race and immigration threatens to dwarf others."
Almost one in five people believe immigrants and asylum seekers are responsible for a loss of community spirit, though 40 percent believe people working longer hours is to blame, with more than a third saying that people watching TV or using the Internet is the reason for a drop in community cohesion.
The survey also exposes sim-mering resentments felt by a large section of those surveyed, with nearly half believing that other people are unfairly getting priority over them in public services and welfare payments. Of the 45 percent who believe the state treats them as second-class citizens, 39 percent blame asylum seekers and new immigrants. Among lower socio-economic classes the feeling they are losing out rises above 50 percent.
The results echo the findings of a poll last year by Mori for the Commission for Racial Equality: One-third of white respondents said they did not mix with ethnic minorities at work and nearly two-thirds did not meet socially. Nearly half those polled thought racial prejudice had increased in 10 years, compared with 29 percent who believed it had fallen.
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