I mange europæiske lande hersker der udbredt frygt for at blive rendt over ende af indvandrere, selv om f.eks. indtaget af asylsøgere og flygtninge fra Syrien er minimalt i sammenligning med byrderne på Syriens nabolande – især “velfærdsturisme” er på debattavlen.
JOHANNESBURG, 13 January 2014 (IRIN): Results released last week from an international survey by UK-based research company, Ipsos MORI, found widely divergent levels of concern about immigration in the 19 countries surveyed.
In the UK, 43 percent of people identified immigration control as one of their country’s top three issues of concern, compared to 32 percent in Australia (the next highest), 15 percent in Sweden and one percent in Poland and Brazil.
The degree to which immigration has become a focus in the UK seems to have little to do with the size of its immigrant population, estimated at about seven percent.
In Spain, non-nationals make up about 11 percent of the population but only six percent of respondents in the Ipsos MORI survey identified immigration control as a major concern.
Most in Germany
The largest number of non-nationals living in the European Union by January 2012, were found in Germany (7,4 million), where about 22 percent of people expressed concern about immigration in the Ipsos MORI survey.
The next highest is Spain (5,5 million), followed by Italy (4,8 million), the UK (4,8 million), and France 3,8 million), according to statistics from the European Commission’s Eurostat database.
As a share of the national population, however, Luxembourg tops the charts with 43 percent of its population made up of non-nationals. Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Cyprus and Latvia (Letland) also have high proportions of non-nationals.
A number of researchers have tried to discover why attitudes toward immigration vary so widely from one country or region to the next, but have found no simple or definitive answers.
An analysis by the Ipsos MORI researchers found that the surge in concern in the UK has accompanied a steep increase in immigration, starting around 1999. In 2011, the UK reported receiving the largest influx of immigrants of all EU countries (566.000), followed by Germany, Spain and Italy.
Concerns driven by perceptions (antagelser)
While there has been a significant increase, people in the UK tend to significantly over-estimate the percentage of the population that are foreign born, with the average guess coming in at 31 percent.
They also over-estimate the proportion of the immigrant population that are asylum seekers and refugees – the least common immigrant type – and overlook foreign students, who made up the largest category of migrants to the UK in 2011.
Concerns about immigration are often driven by the perception that immigrants put too much pressure on public services, and unfairly access welfare benefits.
The recent negative reaction in the UK concerns the lifting of travel restrictions for Bulgarians and Romanians, allowing them to seek work in other EU countries from 1 January 2014.
But this reaction appears to be less about concerns that they will compete with Britons for jobs and more about the belief that they will come to the country to take advantage of its social services, in what has become known as “benefit tourism” (velfærdsturisme).
Differing life experiences.
It is unclear why other countries in northern Europe appear less concerned about this potential influx from Eastern Europe.
However, in comparing immigration attitudes, the Ipsos MORI survey reveals a greater generation gap between Britons and other European nationalities. An article in the Economist suggested this could be the result of differing life experiences.
Before the mid-1970s, the UK was mostly homogenous compared to continental Europe.
The baby boomer generation therefore grew up “Eurosceptic and dubious about diversity”, but for later generations, “mass immigration, European integration and multiculturalism are part of the furniture”.
The Migration Observatory at Oxford University, which analyses migration data, notes that opposition to migration in the UK is “more common among older, UK-born, white, and less educated groups.”
Is it the economy?
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http://www.irinnews.org/report/99457/what-drives-anti-immigration-attitudes
