wedes are much more positive towards
immigration than the citizens of any other country in the European
Union, according to figures from the latest Eurobarometer survey.
No fewer than
72 percent of Swedes said they were either fairly positive or very
positive towards immigration from countries outside the European Union,
with an even greater 82 percent welcoming immigrants from other EU
countries.
No other country came anywhere
close, with only 48 percent of the citizens of the next most open
countries, Croatia and Spain, saying they felt positive to immigrants
from outside the EU.
On average, a solid
majority of 57 percent of European citizens described themselves as
either fairly or very negative to immigration from outside the EU, with
just 35 percent in favour.
“We are used to
high levels of immigration and see the positive effects of it,” Marie
Demker, a politics professor at Gothenburg University told TT. “Asylum
and immigration policy has never been a major contentious issue in
Swedish politics, which again may explain Swedes' positive attitude.”
She said that the figures could help assuage the worries many Swedes
feel about the recent election success of the anti-immigrant Sweden
Democrats, which won nearly 13 percent of the vote in September's
general election.
"Racism and xenophobia are modes of thought and ideas which Swedes are unhappy with and afraid of as phenomena," she said.
Latvia was the least welcoming country, with only 16 percent of
citizens describing themselves as positive to immigrants from outside
the European Union, followed by Italy, where only 18 percent of citizens
welcomed non-EU immigrants.
Here's a chart comparing different attitudes to non-.EU immigration. Press here to see the data visualisation made by the Europaportalen newspaper, who found the figures buried in the Annex of the Eurobarometer survey of 28,000 citizens published in December.
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