Very few people want open borders survey shows

The 27 countries surveyed by Pew, are home to more than half of the world’s migrants.

The numbers of migrants have reached new highs, but people around the world show little interest in welcoming more foreigners, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 27 nations conducted in the spring of 2018.

In all countries surveyed, an astonishing 45 percent said fewer or no immigrants should be allowed into their country. Only 14 percent said their countries should allow more immigrants. Interestingly, people who want no more immigrants, volunteered their response. The rest believed the current numbers should stay the same.

Even more revealing was that countries already faced with large influxes of foreigners were more prone to reject migrants. Majorities in Greece (82 percent), Hungary (72 percent), Italy (71 percent) and Germany (58 percent) felt that fewer immigrants or no immigrants at all should be allowed to move to their countries.

Each of these countries had either been a transit route or destination during the surge in asylum seekers. Many respondents have also disapprove of how the European Union handled the migrant issue.

In other countries around the world, people hold views similar to those in Europe. Large majorities in Israel (73 percent), Russia (67 percent), South Africa (65 percent) and Argentina (61 percent) say their countries should let in fewer immigrants.

In fact, in every country surveyed, less than a third of citizens said that their nation should allow more immigrants.

Worldwide, a record 258 million people were no longer living in their country of birth in 2017, up from 153 million in 1990, according to Pew.

The meteoric rise of political parties that question national immigration policies in destination countries, has been additional proof of how unpopular the notion of open borders is.

More than 2 million migrants have tried to obtain asylum in Europe since 2015. In the Americas, thousands of Central Americans headed to the United States. Immigrants make up the largest shares of national populations in Australia (29 percent), Israel (24 percent), Canada (22 percent) and Sweden (18 percent).

At least 14 percent of the US population is foreign born, almost on par with Germany (15 percent), the UK (13 percent) and Spain (13 percent).

The US tops the list of migrant destinations with 44,5 million immigrants in 2017, with the largest foreign-born population in the world, followed by Saudi Arabia (12,2 million), Germany (12,2 million) and Russia (11,7 million).

But more Americans want fewer immigrants or none than want more. Despite a less than warm welcome awaiting migrants, the top destination remains the United States, according to new report from Gallup. It also shows that more than 750 million people worldwide would migrate if they could.