Yes, Nick Robinson, we don't discuss immigration – we gossip about it

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/07/nick-robinson-immigration-bbc

Version 0 of 1.

Nick Robinson doesn't think we discuss immigration enough; a strange claim during a period when, it seems, we talk of little else. The Truth About Immigration is the name of his heavily trailed documentary, airing this evening on BBC2; and by "heavily trailed" I mean that the entire BBC News network has turned into one interminable trailer for it, across all platforms.

It appears to typify current television news theory on fact-finding. That is, if one conflates every opinion on a subject, from the scientific to the irrational, from the well-informed to the fictitious, crams them all into one hours-worth of television, adds and then divides them up, the mean average will reveal some sort of hidden truth. It doesn't work like that of course. What you get is an hour of the white noise of voxpops – some of value, most not. The programme includes the results of the latest British Social Attitudes Survey, which found that 75% of Britons want immigration curbed.

Almost half thought immigration was bad for the economy but, even of the 31% who thought immigration was good for the economy, half wanted it curbed anyway. This attitude was reflected by Nigel Farage during this morning's interview on Radio 4's Today programme. If immigration meant that "we would all be slightly richer, I would say, do you know what, I would rather we were not slightly richer", he explained. It is a purely emotional argument. Why would any electorate be so keen to cut off its own nose, economically, just to spite its face?

As it seems to be the day for chucking one's opinion into the fray, here is mine, as an immigrant of 23 years to these lovely shores. Many British people seem to find foreigners challenging. This a country which runs on rules, etiquette and routine. Foreigners are, de facto, more likely to be ignorant of those rules. Having to explain them is awkward. Awkwardness must be avoided at all costs. Don't get me wrong – you certainly like us individually and as individuals. But as one group to another, you tolerate us grudgingly; you tut a lot and roll your eyes, when we don't know that one stands on the right of the escalator.

This annoyance creates a perception of immigration, and more generally of "otherness" within society, that is hugely inflated compared to the truth. Brits on average think 24% of the population are Muslims when the reality is closer to 5%, that 31% of the population are immigrants when the reality is 13%, and that black and Asian people make up 30% of the population, when in fact it is 11%.

In a sense, then, Nick Robinson is right. We don't discuss immigration – because discussion would imply a factual basis and the exchange of logical arguments. We worry, we whine and we gossip about it. "My hairdresser's cousin's postman, knows a Bulgarian woman who came over just to claim benefits." The waters are further muddied by this process, masquerading as balance, of giving time and a soapbox to every cockamamie statement any self-serving politician cares to make, then labelling the sum of these parts "the truth about immigration". Farage said this morning: "We have 1 million illegal immigrants, maybe 2 million, in Britain." The statement was left unchallenged. One million, maybe two. We don't know a number, but it is very big and very scary and definitely rounded to the nearest million, because they're the scariest numbers of all.

Like the 29 million Bulgarians and Romanians we were warned about, threatening to enter like an eastern European tsunami one minute past midnight on 1 January. That was a scary number. When I pointed out that the tsunami hadn't materialised, hundreds rushed to comment that it was too soon, that they were coming by bus and would definitely be here by Saturday at the latest. Had a more impressive number flown over on the same day, people would be nodding sagely and saying "told you so". Because this inflated perception is fuelled by the dislike of otherness and becomes a hysterical feedback loop, impervious to fact or logic.

I suspect that, as the time for an actual choice approaches, whether in the form of an in-out EU referendum or otherwise, self-interest will take over and people will start seeking fact rather than hyperbole, as they have in the past. The facts are as clear as they could be. Migrants are net contributors, by a long way. Without them the British economy – and by extension pensions, public services, growth, prosperity – would have shrivelled to a significant extent or taxes would have had to rise.

Nigel Farage accepts this very simple equation. He wants Britain to be poorer but purer.

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.