Immigrants not very popular

Immigrants not very popular all around the globe, polls find

AP , WASHINGTON
Thursday, May 27, 2004

Advertising People in some of the world's leading industrial nations say immigrants take jobs that citizens of their own countries do not want, yet despite that, they still say immigrants have a bad effect, Associated Press (AP) polls found.
In the US and in the European countries polled - Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain - people said they had a negative view of the influence of immigrants, according to the polls conducted for the AP by Ipsos, an international polling firm. That comes at a time when unemployment and jobs are a top concern, and worries about terrorism are high.

Canadians have a positive view of the influence of immigrants, while the Japanese were divided on the influence of immigration on their country, according to the polls.

In the US, worries about the economy, jobs and terrorism are high. The recent expansion of the EU has raised fears among longtime EU members of a wave of immigration. Many of those countries have announced plans to limit access to their labor markets for newcomers.

Gilles Corman, who monitors European public opinion for Ipsos, says immigration is one of the top issues Europeans want addressed in elections there, behind unemployment.

In one country after another, those with more education tended to have the most positive view of the influence of immigration.

Britons expressed the strongest negative feelings about immigration of any of the nine countries polled. Six in 10 Britons, 60 percent, said immigrants are a bad influence on their country.

"The UK has historically embraced diversity," said Sam McGuire, with Ipsos-UK. He said the high negative ratings may have to do with Britons' fears about the recent expansion of the EU, fanned by stories predicting a flood of immigrants.

Another country where residents said they had a fairly negative view of immigration was Germany, where almost six in 10 -- 57 percent -- said immigrants have been a bad influence.

While a solid majority of residents of most countries surveyed said it is better for a country to have a variety of religions, more than four of 10 Germans disagreed.

Germans' negative feelings about immigration could be related to fears about security and terrorism after one of the Sept. 11 terrorists abused Germany's immigration rules, said Christian Holst, director of public affairs for Ipsos-Germany. Germans have higher concerns than those in some other countries that immigrants could take jobs, a fear that could be driven by Germany's relatively high unemployment rate, Holst said.

Many countries share the experience of Spain, where an influx of immigrants provides laborers to work in olive and fruit groves, at construction sites and in greenhouses. Many sectors of the Spanish economy are in constant need of unskilled, cheap labor. The same could be said of many of the industrial countries.

While people in the US, Canada, the European countries and Japan generally said immigration provides a workforce that takes unwanted jobs, almost half of Mexicans, whose country has less industrial development than others polled, said they see immigrants as a threat to their own workforce.