Europe Talks Migration: a cross-country study on the perceptions around migration

Since we began our journey as an organization in 2017, immigration has been one of the central themes of our work. We have studied in depth how public opinion is shaped around this phenomenon in various countries: what causes concern, what inspires rejection, what generates empathy and compassion... We have done so in times of crisis (such as the war in Syria or the invasion of Ukraine), and in more stable contexts, where the migration debate creeps into everyday conversations, election campaigns, and media headlines time and time again.

Until now, this work has mainly had a national focus: in-depth qualitative and quantitative research centered on the dynamics of each country in which we work. But we wanted to take a new step. Because although immigration is experienced differently in each host society, there are questions that can only be answered by comparison. What is common? What is specific? Are there multinational dynamics in the debate on immigration that allow us to better contextualize each national reality?

It is in this spirit that Europe Talks Migration was born, a project that we want to continue in the future and which we are launching with this first comparative study on perceptions of immigration, carried out simultaneously in five European countries—Germany, France, Spain, Poland, and Italy.

Europe Talks Migration combines a national and a European approach, statistics and narrative analysis, to offer a complex and nuanced picture of the migration issue. On this page, we summarize some of the main findings from a comparative perspective and we also include links to the presentations with in-depth results for each of the countries involved.

Although the percentage of the population that views immigration as a threat is still in the minority

In all the countries studied, the percentage of the population that sees immigration as an opportunity or a necessity for the country is still in the majority. In Italy and Spain, there is a much more positive view on this issue, with more than 6 out of 10 inhabitants embracing the view of opportunity and necessity. In general, these two countries still show more positive perceptions of the phenomenon of migration.

Most people have mixed views about immigration, recognizing both benefits and costs

Over the years, we have shown that, far from settling into bipolar approaches (anti vs. pro), individuals' psychology around the issue of migration is extremely complex and full of nuances and balances.

This becomes clear when asking about the costs and benefits of immigration. The benefits perceived in different European countries are mainly economic: more economic growth, more available labor, filling jobs that residents of the receiving societies would not be willing to do...

Strong support for legal pathways

Our research shows that the welcoming societies continue to overwhelmingly support forms of legal immigration. Mechanism such as recruitment in the country of origin, circular migration, family reunification or community sponsorship receive majority support, regardless of individuals' ideology and value systems. In fact, in all countries, a majority prefers a migration policy that combines border control with the development of mechanisms to promote legal immigration.

The 5 Cs

Through research conducted in several countries over the last few years, we have observed that there are five fundamental dimensions in the way individuals think about immigration. These dimensions, which we call “the 5 Cs,” can be used as a conceptual framework to approach social perceptions of migration:

Control: refers to citizens' perception of their country's ability to control its borders and decide who can and cannot cross them.
Compassion: this dimension encompasses the feelings of empathy, support, and solidarity that individuals in receiving societies develop toward migrants and their reality.
Contribution: refers to the contributions that individuals perceive immigrants and refugees to make to the countries and societies they arrive in. These contributions can be positive or negative.
Competence: this refers to confidence in the ability of governments, public administrations, and other actors to manage immigration and design migration policies that work.
Community: includes the challenges and opportunities that, according to the welcoming societies, arise from living with migrants and refugees, and their integration.

In this study, we focused on analyzing the interaction between control, compassion, and contribution. People with more conservative value systems or ideologies tend to place greater importance on control when thinking about immigration; on the other hand, those with more progressive value systems or ideologies tend to prioritize compassion. However, our study shows how contribution is a dimension that brings together large majorities of the population and, therefore, a good starting point for focusing the conversation about immigration and refugees.