Public attitudes towards refugees in Europe
Ipsos has undertaken research on public attitudes towards refugees across 12 countries in Europe. The survey was commissioned by the International Rescue Committee.
The survey shows that most Europeans express at least a small level of sympathy when it comes to the refugees currently fleeing war in Syria. On average, across the 12 countries polled, 76% expressed sympathy with more than half (51%) saying they had either a great deal or fair amount of sympathy. The country with the most amount of sympathy was Ireland with 88% expressing sympathy (68% saying a great deal or fair amount) while Slovakia had the least amount of sympathy with 51% (16% saying a great deal or fair amount).
The findings also reveal a number of concerns Europeans have when it comes to allowing refugees into their country. The most cited issues were national security, costs to the national government, and pressure on the national welfare system (each said by 30% of respondents on average). Roughly 17% of all respondents said that they have no concerns about refugees.
TECHNICAL NOTE
The survey was carried out online by Ipsos from 5 August 2016 - 22 August 2016 in the following 12 countries: Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The age range of those surveyed was 18-55 in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, 18-65 in Denmark, Ireland, and Portugal, 16-75 in France and the United Kingdom, 18-70 in Germany, 16-70 in Italy, and 16-65 in Spain and Sweden. The total sample size is 12,646 respondents across all 12 countries (roughly 1,050 respondents per country). Data are weighted to match the population profile for each county. This includes age, gender, region and working status.
