I'm not sure what to do with these numbers. I get countries like Greece, Italy and Spain justifiably feel this way. On the other hand there are also a lot of countries that whine when asked to pull their weight, but are at the front of the line when EU is handing out subsidies.
If respondents have the perception their country takes in too many immigrants, but statistics actually show they take in below average, then frankly my response would be: tough titty, either you take in your fair share of people in need as a country or forgo your share when EU is dishing out subsidies. You can't have it both ways.
If respondents have the perception their country takes in too many immigrants
Pretty much any right wing party in the Netherlands lied about the number of asylum seekers. Then they purposely mix up the number of immigrants and asylum seekers. Plus asylum seekers are the latest group to be blamed for government failures.
People are giving significant tax benefits for work immigrants. But give them a different name (knowledge workers), so they can continue to pretend most immigrants are asylum seekers. While in reality asylum seekers make up a tiny portion of the immigrants in the Netherlands.
If I see stuff about immigrants I'm always suspicious. Likely the complaint is about asylum seekers and equalling every immigrant as an asylum seeker.
It's exactly the same in Switzerland. The economy profits tremendously from highly educated EU immigrants (of which there is a fuckton), but the right wing parties whine constantly about the asylum seekers (of which there are comparatively very few) and blame them for made up and actual problems
Same in Germany. I hate to say it, but we are actively going towards a time about 80 years ago. Yet our democratic parties are scared to ban the AfD(our right wing party where you're legally allowed to call one of their leaders a Nazi).
The countries where most people consider immigration a problem are Bulgaria (74% of respondents), the Czech Republic (73%), Hungary and Cyprus (68% in both cases). Paradoxically, in Italy, the European country where the largest number of immigrants entered irregularly last year (157,652), only 44% of respondents viewed it as a problem and only 14% saw it as the main problem. In Greece and Spain, the second and third countries with the most irregular arrivals in 2023, respectively, only 11% of respondents considered it the issue of most concern to them, below the European average of 17%. However, Greece is the country where the most people (90%) believe their country takes in too many migrants.
So basically local poverty is a far better predictor of people thinking there's too many immigrants than actual immigrant numbers. No wonder the Tories in the UK revel in the boat people rhetoric. Lol. Lmao even. Our species is fucked.
