Views of Muslims in countries in Europe are least negative in the United Kingdom and most negative in eastern and southern countries, according to new research.
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Citizens of both Hungary and Poland also anxious more than other Europeans that refugees would be a burden to their countries because they would take their jobs and social benefits.
Meanwhile, well over half of Europeans in Hungary (72 percent), Italy (69 percent), Poland (66 percent), and Greece (65 percent) have unfavorable views of Muslims living in their country.
Europe has recently suffered several major terrorist attacks, including the assaults by the Isis group on Paris and Brussels that killed scores of people.
Hungary, Greece, Italy and Poland “stand out for expressing greater concern and more negative views about refugees and minority groups” on every question, Pew said, underlining a divide between southern and eastern European member states and their northern counterparts. A survey by the Pew Research Center found no correlation between actual refugee numbers and respondents’ concerns about migration.
Well over half of Swedes think that refugees make their country stronger, according to the results of a new survey of ten European nations conducted by the Pew Research Center.
Most of the recent refugees to Europe are arriving from majority-Muslim nations, such as Syria and Iraq. Unsurprisingly, people on the ideological right expressed more concerns about refugees, more negative attitudes toward minorities and less enthusiasm for a diverse society.
In Germany, in 2005, only 9% of people thought Muslim immigrants wanted to adopt local customs, whereas now 32% hold that view.
The nations least concerned with the economic burden of refugees were France and Germany, the latter of which accepted one million asylum-seekers this year (and more than the USA has in the past 10 years). “In part, the refugee flow was even used to smuggle terrorists“, she said, addressing supporters of her Christian Democrat Union party on Monday.
The top concern among Germans is terrorism, the survey shows, with 73 percent of respondents anxious by it, compared to 52 percent a year ago.
When asked more generally, whether having an increasing number of people of many different races, ethnic groups and nationalities in their country makes the society a better place to live in, only few Europeans said diversity has a positive impact. Notably, the percentage saying that Muslims want to remain distinct has actually declined since 2005 in four out of five countries where trend data are available.
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The prevailing attitude in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain is that diversity is neither a plus nor a minus in term of quality of life.
