Attitudes towards immigrants and the impact of migration in European countries

This article focuses on a comparison of attitudes towards migration in twenty European countries. It analyses data from the European Social Survey 2002. The first part of the article contains a summary of the available sources of data on migration and a brief outline of developments and the current state of migration in Europe. The second part looks at the question of whether attitudes towards immigrants are related to the numbers and structure of immigrants in a country and their economic situation. Three thematic areas are examined: 1) the host population's willingness to accept immigrants; 2) perceptions of the impact of immigration on the host country; 3) attitudes towards different forms of integration of immigrants. The findings indicate that Europeans are more willing to accept migrants that are of the same race (ethnic group) and from Europe than they are migrants of a different race (ethnic group) and from states outside Europe. The strongest unwillingness to accept people from other states and the strongest emphasis on the negative impact of immigration was observed in Greece and Hungary, while the strongest willingness to accept immigrants was found in Sweden and Switzerland and was connected with a more positive perception of the impact of immigration.