Germans fear migration more than climate change, study finds – DW – 05/08/2024
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Europeans — especially Germans — are increasingly keen on curbing immigration and are less focused on climate change, according to a study by a Danish-based think tank.

Europeans — especially Germans — are increasingly keen on curbing immigration and are less focused on climate change, according to a study by a Danish-based think tank.

Europe has seen a sharp rise in the share of people who say that reducing immigration should be a top government priority, according to a study published Wednesday. Germany is topping the list.

At the same time, there was less desire to prioritize fighting climate change in the same countries, according to the survey commissioned by the Denmark-based Alliance of Democracies Foundation think tank.

Nearly half of German respondents put focus on migration

Since 2022, an increasing number of Europeans say their government should prioritize “reducing immigration,” rising from just under 20% to a quarter.

Meanwhile, concern about climate change was on the slide across the continent.

“In 2024, for the first time, reducing immigration is a greater priority for most Europeans than fighting climate change,” the report said.

“Nowhere is this reversal more striking than in Germany, which now leads the world with the highest share of people who want their government to focus on reducing immigration — topping all other priorities — and now nearly twice as high as fighting climate change,” the report read.

  • Wanderer@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    8 months ago

    Reducing immigration is not an authoritarian policy. Its crazy you think it is.

    That’s a basic government policy.

    • conditional_soup@lemm.eeEnglish
      11·
      8 months ago

      On the question of Nazis, I must beg your pardon. I know an actual IRL Nazi (or perhaps more), because I knew them before they were Nazis. What I now know on hindsight to be bad faith questions about cultural preservation and immigration was my initial introduction to their new ideology.

      On the question of immigration, I think what’s being asked for here isn’t just modest controls. You might say that, but the language about Germans feeling forced out of their own country would suggest to me that the order of the day is something a little more robust. I think I can be forgiven for that estimation. You can’t have it both ways, if you start giving the government extra power to start flexing on immigrants and non-conforming cultures, it’s eventually going to get used against you, too. You’re never so deep in the in-group as you might think.