More Americans Support Increased Levels of Immigration: Pew Study

A poll conducted by Pew Research Center has found that more Americans want the number of migrants coming into the country to either stay at current levels or increase while on the other hand, most Europeans want to see fewer migrants.

Among Asian nations, the increasingly aging Japan wants to have more migrants to support its industry and business.

According to the Pew study, globally more people would like to see a decrease in current immigration levels.

Pew Research Center surveyed 27 countries to understand their views on immigration. According to Pew, these 27 countries have more than half of the world’s international migrants. Of the countries surveyed, 45% wanted fewer or no immigrants in their country while 36%, including the U.S., said they want the number of migrants restricted to the current numbers.

Among European countries, 82% of Greeks said they wanted fewer immigrants in their borders. The European country has, since 2015, become home to thousands of migrants and refugees escaping the civil war in Syria. Almost three-quarters of Hungarians, 71% of Italians, and 58% of Germans also wanted fewer immigrants in their countries. All of these countries have received or still receive a large number of migrants and refugees.

In the U.S., only 29% of Americans want immigration numbers to be decreased, while 44% said the immigration numbers should remain at current levels and nearly a quarter of Americans wanted immigration numbers to increase. In Mexico, which is seeing a rise in Central American migrants, 44% of those spoken to wanted immigration to decrease in the country, while 42% said they wanted it to remain at current levels.

Among countries that were more open to the idea of immigration are Spain and Japan. While 28% Spaniards wanted open borders, 23% Japanese wanted the country thrown open for immigrants. Japan’s population is getting older and its birth rate is among the lowest in the world. The country now wants immigrants to fill the gap and run its industrial machines.