Immigration seen as major problem in US and Europe

Canadians see immigration as an opportunity while a majority of Britons, Americans and Spaniards view it as a problem.

In France, perceptions of immigrants worsened last year, with 40 per cent of the French saying immigrants – even those who are in the country legally – increase crime. In 2009, less than a quarter of the French thought that way.

Those are some of the findings of the “Transatlantic Trends: Immigration”, which measured public opinion on immigration issues on both sides of the Atlantic last year, as the world struggled to emerge from the global economic crisis.

The countries included in the survey were Canada and the US in North America, and Britain, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Spain in Europe.

The study found that two-thirds of people in Britain and more than half in Spain and the US see immigration as more of a problem than an opportunity, while in Canada, the trend is reversed, with just 27 per cent considering immigration a problem.

Meanwhile, majorities in Spain and the US – 54 per cent and 59 per cent respectively – also think immigrants are integrating well into their societies, as do nearly two-thirds of Canadians.

At the other end of the scale, in The Netherlands and Italy, only around 36 per cent of poll respondents said immigrants were fitting in well, while in Britain, France and Germany, over four in 10 said immigrants were integrating well.

When the poll respondents were asked specifically about how Muslim immigrants were integrating, the reaction in The Netherlands and Italy was the same as for immigrants in general.

But in every other country but one, people perceived Muslims as blending into society less well than the immigrant population as a whole.

In Spain, only two in 10 poll respondents said Muslims were blending into society, while just a quarter of Germans said the same thing. In the US and Canada, 45 per cent of poll respondents saw Muslims as blending in better than other immigrants.

In Britain, 37 per cent said Muslims were integrating well compared to nearly half who said the same of immigrants in general.

The only country where more people said Muslims were integrating well than immigrants in general was France, and there the difference was only one percentage point – 45 per cent versus 44 per cent.

When the pollsters asked what immigrants should do to blend into their new country, responses were varied.

Germans felt learning the language was key, the Dutch stressed language and cultural values, and Italians, Spaniards, and the French thought that respecting political institutions and laws was the most important.

The study said the economic crisis may have affected attitudes about immigration, as the unemployed or those whose personal economic situation got worse between 2009 and 2010 were “more likely to fear labour-market competition from immigrants”.

“Americans and the British continue to express the most worry about labour-market competition, while Italians largely see immigrants as complements, rather than rivals, to natives in the workplace,” says the study.

In the telephone poll, conducted late last year, 1,000 adults in each country were interviewed.

The survey was conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the US (GMF), the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of the US; Italy’s Compagnia di San Paolo; and the Barrow Cadbury Trust of Britain, with support from the Fundación BBVA of Spain.