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MNHQ

Refugee crisis: please take our survey to let us know where you stand

7 replies

SarahMumsnet · 03/09/2015 16:30

Good afternoon, everyone.

Many of you will have seen the thread started by Theremustbesomething suggesting that Mumsnet consider campaigning for the government to change its policy towards asylum seekers fleeing from war zones.

Justine posted this morning to say that "we think that the best way forward is to poll all users to gauge support for this. While it's clear from this thread that many feel extremely passionately about the need to do more, we've had a look at other threads on the subject, and there are a range of views. As a rule we don't campaign for political change unless we're clear that it's something that a substantial majority of Mumsnetters support, so we'd need to be sure of that before committing to an 'official' campaign."

We've now set up the poll; you can fill it in here. We'd be grateful if as many of you as possible could take it, to let us know your views. We'll make sure this thread is prominently displayed across the site.

Thanks very much,
MNHQ

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MNHQ

SarahMumsnet · 03/09/2015 18:48

@atticusclaw2

Its not a simple issue though and many people feel very strongly one way or another. I cried earlier looking at the pictures so don't assume I am anti assistance. Clearly the site doesn't just deal with parenting issues, (I've been on here for 10 years and engage on a daily basis, the vast majority of the time it's nothing to do with parenting), and clearly there are children involved in the crisis. That doesn't make it appropriate to politicise the site in this way.

If people feel strongly they can write to their MPs. But the site shouldn't take a collective decision on the views of the members (many of whom won't bother to vote because it will attract mainly those who have an interest). I just don't see where it stops if that happens and that would be a shame since there is fantastic debate that goes on here which would be impacted by the site taking a side/view on each issue.

Thanks for sharing your view on this, atticus. To explain our position a bit: Mumsnet as an organisation doesn't campaign on its own; all our campaigns are user-generated. When Theremustbesomething contacted us earlier in the week asking that we get involved in this issue, we suggested she start a thread to gauge support among the rest of the site members. When it became clear that a lot of users were actively asking for a Mumsnet campaign, we decided that the best way to proceed was to offer everyone on the site the chance to have their say - because, as you point out, the thread itself may well not have been representative of the views of the site as a whole, since it would tend to attract people who were invested in the cause already.

We don't want to misrepresent our members, or politicise the site; in fact, we work hard to maintain the site's political neutrality. But it's been clear over the course of the day that this is an issue behind which a substantial number of Mumsnetters are throwing their support. Polling the membership at large seemed to us to be the best way of determining whether or not the support is site-wide.

Hopefully you'll take part in the survey and record your views; it's what it's there for. And I hope this explanation makes sense.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 04/09/2015 09:38

Morning everyone

A few of you have said you'd have liked the survey to be more specific. The questions were designed to gauge people's feelings around this specific situation; we wouldn't campaign on the broader issue of immigration policy, but specifically around the question of the UK's response to the current crisis, and we kept the survey brief as it seemed to us that the first thing we needed to establish was Mumsnetters' enthusiasm for our support of such a campaign.

Do please bear in mind though that both questions have 'other' fields which you can fill in to express anything you think we've missed. We also know from experience that long, complex surveys can turn people off, and we wanted as many MNers as possible to fill this one in so that we can get as close as possible to understanding what you think as a group.

With that last point in mind, we will keep the survey at the top of the HP, as a DOD, and stickied throughout the day, and we'll point people towards it from our Talk Round-Up email, which goes out this afternoon. We'll also signpost it on the many discussion threads around the boards. We'll keep the survey open until midnight today, and will let you know the outcome ASAP after that.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 04/09/2015 11:28

Hello again

Just to address a couple of points some posters have raised (and thanks, genuinely, for all the feedback and comments - we are reading and digesting):

Open self-selecting surveys is how we do things on Mumsnet - it always has been. We don't hold complex demographic data on our users as individuals, nor do we keep a record of users' 'political' viewpoints, so it's difficult for us to do sampling in those senses - so offering a survey, so long as it's very widely promoted and open to all, seems to us to be the best way. For what it's worth, we've had over 2k responses to this one already, which is a pretty high response rate.

On the 'political lobby' point: MN started taking on campaigning activity because so many of our users asked us to. We take great care not to be aligned in terms of party politics, because we know that MNers' allegiances on that score are many and varied; we try to take up only issues that are supported by a great majority of our users (things like our rape myths campaigning, miscarriage care improvement, and trying to address issues faced by parents of children with disabilities and additional needs).

What we're trying to find out with this survey is whether the refugee issue has reached that non-party, above-politics point - and whether a substantial majority of users would like us to get involved. As with all these things, we started the survey because of the very emphatic response (in terms of both sentiment and numbers of posters) to the thread started by Theremustbesomething.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 07/09/2015 12:07

Hello

Right - thanks very much for all your views, for your patience, and - to 3,151 of you, which is a pretty huge number - for taking the survey.

Here are the results:

Q1: In light of the numbers of people fleeing difficult situations in the Middle East and other regions, would you support or oppose Mumsnet campaigning for the government to allow more asylum seekers to settle in the UK?

Support - 78%
Oppose - 13%
Neither - 4%
Don't know - 3%
Other - 2%

Q2. Would you support or oppose Mumsnet campaigning for the government to commit more UK resources to carrying out rescue operations in the Mediterranean?

Support - 82%
Oppose - 9%
Neither - 4%
Don't know - 3%
Other - 2%

Events have overtaken us a little bit over the last few days; David Cameron is expected to make a statement today in Parliament outlining extra measures that the UK government will take.

We're also mindful that while only 9-13% of survey respondents actively oppose making a political call on the government, that opposition is very strong and heartfelt - which hasn't really been the case on previous 'official' MNHQ campaigns (such as We Believe You, Miscarriage Care and so on).

So: we're going to promote MNers' activity (such as participation in the September 12 march, the Woolly Hugs project, and donation drives) across the site and social media, so that as many people as possible are aware of what's being done. We'll also offer free advertising space to one of the big charities collecting financial donations for refugees in all geographical areas.

We'll set up the separate topic; use editorial opportunities such as Guest Posts on the Bloggers Network to keep the issue at the forefront of people's minds; and ask our Local Editors to think about adding stickied threads to their sites allowing local MNers to share info on local initiatives (such as community donation drives).

Hope that sounds useful and thanks again for all your input.

MNHQ x

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 07/09/2015 13:03

@iamaboveandBeyond

Thanks rowan :)

Could i be really nosy and ask if it is possible to know what the 'other' responses were? Just wondering if there are any ideas that we may not have thought of?

Just reading through them now - very interesting!

So far it seems to be a mix of:

-Reasons for strongly supporting/opposing the proposals
-Reservations about impact on net migration; eg, supporting giving asylum to more people, so long as numbers of economic migrants are reduced
-Expressing a preference for addressing the issue at source (ie the conditions that are driving people away from their home countries)
-Support for the principle of accepting more refugees, but in a specific way/with specific criteria
-Some concern expressed about accepting groups of unaccompanied men, as opposed to children, women or family groups; also lots of people concerned about sufficient vetting of prospective refugees
-Lots of concern about the impact on Mumsnet itself - the community - if this were to become a campaign

...and lots of other quite finely nuanced things.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 07/09/2015 16:37

Hi all,
So clearly government has responded to the call to let more asylum seekers into UK in David Cameron's speech, but as far as we can see nothing has been said about the second question of increasing resources towards search and rescue operations in the Med. Given the pretty clear majority backing this in our survey we're happy to officially call for action this. We'll put our heads together overnight on the best way of going about it - do add any thoughts here.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 08/09/2015 13:45

Hello

Just to follow up on Justine's post last night: we're looking right now at the best way to move forward on the Mediterranean rescue aspect. Apologies that this is taking a little while - of course, the organisations involved in these campaigns are working flat-out at the moment and we want to make sure that we have full and useful information before we update you. We'll be back with a fuller update ASAP.

Thanks
MNHQ

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