EMM4 publishes a study providing insights on how people perceive migration

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The study Public attitudes on migration: rethinking how people perceive migration

The study Public attitudes on migration: rethinking how people perceive migration, published in April 2019, was commissioned by ICMPD’s EUROMED Migration IV to the Observatory of Public Attitudes to Migration –OPAM, and is built on the findings of the first EuroMed Migration Communications Study –How does the media on both sides of the Mediterranean report on migration?

The study aims to provide a better understanding of public attitudes towards migration in 17 selected countries on both sides of the Mediterranean and to explain what accounts for these attitudes. 

It has three main objectives. First, it seeks to offer a better understanding of public attitudes to migration on both sides of the Mediterranean by identifying what these attitudes are and what quantitative sources on attitudes to migration are available. Some of the key findings about what attitudes to migration are include the fact that in Europe, attitudes to immigration are not becoming more negative, but are rather stable and even more positive in recent years. Nevertheless, the perceived importance of the issue of immigration is volatile and has risen sharply across Europe; it will likely continue to dominate both national and European elections discourses, and voters most concerned about immigration are more likely to vote for anti-immigrant parties. What emerges unambiguously is that Europeans everywhere want immigrants who are able to “assimilate socially”.

Second, it seeks to explain variation in attitudes to migration across these countries with a special emphasis on the role of media.

Third, recommendations are provided to government communications experts and media professionals on how to communicate on migration in a manner that does not drive polarisation.