3 February 2018

VoxEurop: Immigration: Europeans favour intra-EU mobility

The 88th Eurobarometer survey, published in December 2017, finds that most Europeans (64 percent) have a positive opinion about immigration coming from other EU countries. In May 2015, as recently noted by the think-tank Bruegel, "51% of persons asked had a 'very' or 'somewhat' positive view of intra-EU immigration. 40 percent expressed a 'very' or 'somewhat' negative view, while 9 percent had no opinion. Since then, support for intra-EU immigration has continued to climb".

According to Bruegel this means that "more than two-thirds of European citizens have a positive view of the free movement of people within the EU". This feeling is shared across almost all European countries – even the UK, committed to leaving the EU – with the only exception being Cyprus, where 50 percent of residents think the opposite. [...]

"Luxemburgers, Irish and Swedes are the most favorable to intra-EU migrations, and they also remain relatively supportive of extra-EU immigration. More than half of Spanish, Portuguese and British citizens also support extra-EU immigration. [...] Conversely, support is very weak in certain countries of central and eastern Europe (Czechia, Slovakia, Latvia, Hungary and Estonia)", notes the Brussels research institute. It adds that this perception of extra-EU immigration did not deteriorate during the refugee crisis, remaining more or less stable.

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