Europeans view immigration with increasing suspicion. Seven out of 10 Europeans believe that their country takes in too many migrants, according to a survey carried out by BVA Xsight for ARTE Europe Weekly, a project led by the French-German TV channel ARTE GEIE and which EL PAÍS has participated in, as part of the countdown to the European elections in June.

The survey shows that 85% of respondents feel the European Union needs to take more action to combat irregular migration. And only 39% believe that Europe needs immigration today.

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.

  • john89@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    Immigration is a good thing.

    On average, the more people contributing to an economy bolsters it.

    • Vipsu@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      There are more things to a stable and sustainable society than economy.

      With many European countries doing budget cuts to education, social security, healthcare etc many people are dissatisfied with their goverments. This can make it very hard to justify spending said budget on migrants or programs with aim to integrating migrants to the society.

      • P1nkman@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        But the budget cuts is so that they can reduce the taxes for the richest, which will trickle down and boost the economy even more! Let’s goooooo…

      • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        It’s just that the austerity cuts on basic living necessities create more instability, for native-born and new members of a society. But that’s probably the purpose, masses are easier to control when they struggle and are helpless

      • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        All those countries also suffer from a huge demographic catastrophe coming in. Unless they get a massive amount of young immigrant workers to stabilise the social systems, those systems will collapse alltogether.

        • Vipsu@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Sure, but in order to solve that through migration we would need good infrastructure and effective processes to properly integrate these people to our societies. Unfortunately most of these countries do not have the money, expertise nor the will to implement these things properly making them fail not only their people but the refugees / migrants as well.

          These migrants also increase the need for more social security and better education as many of them struggle to find jobs due to lack of education, language skills or just general distrust/racism towards migrants. Add in the additional need for healthcare and day care services well further putting presure on social systems in verge of collapse.

          Now add in the possibility that artificial integeligence will cause causing unprecedented levels of unemployment in near future and how climate change may throw a wrench in the system at any point. I just don’t see how we can solve any of these problems under the current market economy.

  • 3volver@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Immigration is all about cheap labor. In the US there’s a reason why so many seasonal workers come in illegally. It’s because it’s cheaper for the agricultural overlords and they make greater profits needing to pay undocumented workers less. Remember the money, it’s always about the money.

    https://www.newsweek.com/nearly-half-us-farmworkers-undocumented-ending-illegal-immigration-could-devastate-economy-1585202

    The corporations want us to be xenophobic, they want us to hate “illegal aliens” for “stealing our jobs” because it allows them to continue to profit at record levels.

    • pHr34kY@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Seven out of 10 Europeans believe their country takes in too many immigrants

      …So, 30% of EU are immigrants?

      • Riddick3001@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        The EU has been hosting many immigrants for decades, and many have become citizens.

        Surprisingly though,it seems that many EU citizens with a migration background, ( for example 1st and 2nd generation etc) in the EU vote against new immigrants. They usually perceive it as a threat against their economic/housing/children’s stability & future.

        • Miaou@jlai.lu
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          7 months ago

          … Or because they see the things they ran away from following them. But of course this is not compatible with the myth that immigration is unconditionally good, so its better to pretend those immigrants are just trying to close the door behind them (have people who say this shit ever spoken to actual immigrants BTW?)

  • VodkaSolution @feddit.it
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    7 months ago

    Italian here. It seems a very low percentage considering how big the immigration issue is perceveid on the media and in the political talks. It was also a big part of the campaign the led the right/center right to win the past elections.

  • A'random Guy@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Yeah it’s great. Just great. Until your government imports so many that you can’t afford to live anywhere and can’t pick up a second job because of all the doctors and engineers.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      Pst, here’s a secret… capitalism is causing that to happen world wide - including in countries with low immigration.

      • A'random Guy@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        OK. What’s your fix? Because as a person on the ground whats effecting me -right now- is so many people came that rent skyrocketed and they took all the weekend work “as students”

        • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          If you’re familiar with copy-left licensing then short term my fix is to start encumbering properties with perpetual clauses prohibiting non-natural person ownership. I think if we could get a few sellers to start including such a clause it’d become popular extremely quickly - people selling their home or their parents home don’t want to see it turned into a perpetual airbnb for a Saudi investor… the majority of people selling homes want that home to be used by a new family - these are extremely precious things for us.

          Additionally, we need to attack NIMBY zoning laws that prevent densification to super charge housing prices… this one is harder because most homeowners don’t want their neighborhood densified so we’d need to remove power from local zoning boards and let federal or provincial governments have more control.

          • A'random Guy@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            This I agree with 110%. It’s difficult to attack these things in my country as home ownership is one of the few ways to build wealth and people will fight back. As it stands i don’t mind to keep renting on the short term because I see the government doubling taxes or more on homes, but my rent has also doubled. Our politicians fix so far has been to promise to spur into action home building, but they are building Luxury homes…

    • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Thats why all the companies are crying that they lack employees. Thats why Britain is still short tens of thousands of lorry drivers

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    7 months ago

    It’s a really different situation from America, where xenophobic stuff is concentrated in a very angry, specific slice of the population. It makes me wonder if the EU far-right is less emerging fascism, and more a return to East Asian-style policies, which might have been more natural all along in ancient (former and current) kingdoms.

    Just a thought. I’m not even sure I believe it, let alone can prove it, so I guess as they say in Musk-land, “don’t at me”.

  • tearsintherain@leminal.space
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    7 months ago

    Scapegoats for decades of failed neoliberal capitalism that’s led to massive inequality. Massive wealth accumulated by slivers of the populations.

  • Drusas@kbin.run
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    7 months ago

    Well, they better get ready for more as increasing numbers of people become climate refugees from the Middle East and global south.