Icelanders are the most positive towards immigrants and multiculturalism
Icelanders’ attitudes have become more positive towards immigrants and multiculturalism, but they are now the most liberal in Europe. The majority of citizens also want the government to be generous in granting residence permits to asylum seekers. These are the results of the latest version of the attitude survey European Social Survey.
The survey covered 23 countries and 44,387 active interviewees, while 880 Icelanders answered it. It has been carried out eight times, but its purpose is to compare attitudes between European countries and whether they change over time. The latest version of the survey was conducted in Iceland in 2016, and it is the third time the country has participated in it. The previous two times were carried out in Iceland in 2004 and 2012.
Iceland, Ireland and Sweden at the top
Among the things that were asked in the survey was whether the interviewees believe that immigrants have a good or bad effect on the economy, and they are also asked whether they think that immigrants make the country a better or worse place to live. About 69% of Icelanders thought the economic impact of immigrants was good, and 78% of them thought Iceland was better because of their arrival. Both response rates are by far the highest of all European countries, followed by Ireland and Sweden with almost 60%.
Positive towards multiculturalism
Another concerned attitudes towards multiculturalism, or whether the home country should be enriched by the arrival of immigrants. 78% of Icelanders answered that question positively, and that was also the highest measured percentage of the survey. Iceland was followed by Finland and Sweden, where 77% and 72% of interviewees answered the question positively.
Looking at Iceland’s results in the previous editions of the survey in 2004 and 2012, positive changes have been made in recent years. In 2004, 68% of Icelanders answered that immigrants improve the country’s cultural life, and in 2012, the response rate was also 69%.
The countries that were most hostile to foreign cultural influence were Austria, Lithuania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Russia, but in Russia only 17% of interviewees believed that immigrants enrich the cultural life of their home country.
When asked whether the home country’s government should be generous in granting residence permits for asylum seekers, 56% of Icelanders were in favor of it, of which 15% were very much in favor. This percentage is the third highest in Europe, with 71% of the Portuguese and 59% of the Irish answering the question in the affirmative.