Harvard and Azimo expose migrant abuse with #BetterThanThat campaign

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Lorna Hughes

23 Jun 2016

With the EU Referendum rarely out of the headlines over the past few weeks, attitudes to the UK’s migrant community sit at the top of the news agenda. Harvard and new fintech client Azimo decided to develop a campaign which would look in detail at this issue – shining a light not only on the experience of migrants living and working in the UK, but also the views of UK natives towards this growing community. The study, called #BetterThanThat, was designed to pull no punches and address the sometimes brutal experience migrants face in moving to the UK. The goal was to unmask the prejudice, ill-feeling and misconceptions about migrants – a community Azimo serves every day through its money transfer app. And to reveal the truth - that most migrants make a huge contribution to UK society and the economy, and that most UK natives have no ill-feeling towards migrants.
  1. The campaign spanned two key pieces of activity: a study of both migrants and UK natives to gauge their opinions of and experiences with each other
  2. A video of migrants and UK natives reading out mean tweets which have been directed at migrants
The results were pretty stunning – and dispelled plenty of the myths out there: Myth: Migrants are only fit for low-paid, menial jobs Reality: 69% of migrants in the UK are in education or employment and the average migrant earns just under £28,500, higher than the national UK average salary Myth: Migrants are only here for the benefits Reality: Less than 2% of migrants claim benefits Myth: Migrants are pushing up the crime rate Reality: LSE studies show no causal impact of immigration on crime. Yet 1-in-3 migrants have been verbally abused for being a migrant The campaign has been a huge success so far with coverage including The Metro and The Independent which ran the video on its Facebook page, attracted 97k views in three days! The campaign is continuing but if you want to have a further read, check out the report and plenty more content here.