These 6 charts show how immigration will make or break Brexit

David Cameron Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The number one issue dominating the outcome is immigration.








Over the last two years, immigration has more or less remained as the most important issue facing the UK, according to YouGov polls illustrated by Barclays. In 2015, the gap between immigration and all other main concerns for Britons widened.


This idea was further reinforced when Britons were asked in another YouGov poll about what the most desired EU reforms would look like. Guess what — immigration issues ranked first and second.


Barclays says that the following chart "illustrates the impact of attention to the European migration crisis on people’s awareness of the EU referendum and on their voting intentions."


The chart includes the Google search terms migrants, immigrants, asylum seekers, migrant crisis, and refugee crisis. "As Google searches among UK residents for terms related to the migration crisis spiked, so too did their searches for 'EU referendum,'" said Barclays.


"Coincident with the increased focus on the referendum implied by Google search data, polls show that voters’ intentions swung significantly towards ‘Leave,’" the investment bank added.


But it's not just Britain that finds immigration to be its biggest issue — many others across the EU do too. European Council and Eurobarometer data shows that "in 20 of 28 EU members, immigration was reported as the most important issue facing the EU, by an average margin of 6 percentage points," Barclays notes.


And whether some politicians or the public like it or not, concern over immigration is growing across the EU and will play a significant role in the outcome of the UK's referendum.

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