When it comes to attitudes towards refugees in the European Union (EU), young people reflect the geographic political divide between western and eastern member nations, a survey by the Germany-based Bertelsmann Foundation released Monday has shown. Over the past three years, European authorities have struggled to cope with the influx of more than a million people who journeyed in smugglers' boats and overland to seek refuge in EU countries. Most lodged their asylum applications in wealthier western members of the bloc, namely Germany and Sweden. While 73 percent of youth in Germany and 61 percent of youth in Austria believed their countries should grant asylum to people fleeing war or persecution, 70 percent or more of youth in Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary don't want their countries to take in refugees. That mirrors the attitudes held by the respective countries' leading politicians.

Researchers polled a total of 3,000 people between the ages of 15 and 24, 500 from each of the six countries. People responded via online questionnaires during the first two weeks of February. Despite the small sample size, the foundation maintains the results are representative of the countries. The youths' attitudes toward refugees reflected their broader views on immigration. Young Germans were slightly more inclined than not to agree that immigrants contributed to the economic growth and general prosperity of their country. However, well over half of Polish, Slovakian, Czech and Hungarian youth disagreed.

Strong support for European unity The survey's release comes as EU leaders prepare to meet in Rome to celebrate 60 years since the signing of the bloc's founding treaty. It's a rocky anniversary as overlapping crises threaten the unity of the European Union: a lack of cohesion on migration, the rise of nationalist movements and parties like the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Brexit maneuvers and the issue of Greece's unresolved debt. Despite these challenges, 70 percent or more of those surveyed in all of the countries were positive about their nation's EU membership.

Other issues of concern to more than 60 percent of respondents across the six surveyed nations were "environmental degradation, climate change and its consequences," followed by "unemployment, job insecurity and economic instability" and "the gap between rich and poor."

Although many young Germans (64 percent) saw terrorism as an "important" or "very important" threat, environmental concerns and growing xenophobia closely followed. In Hungary and Slovakia, economic concerns ranked almost as highly as those related to terrorism or immigration.

First published on March 21, 2017

Author: Samantha Early

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