Europeans — especially Germans — are increasingly keen on curbing immigration and are less focused on climate change, according to a study by a Danish-based think tank.
Europe has seen a sharp rise in the share of people who say that reducing immigration should be a top government priority, according to a study published Wednesday. Germany is topping the list.
At the same time, there was less desire to prioritize fighting climate change in the same countries, according to the survey commissioned by the Denmark-based Alliance of Democracies Foundation think tank.
Nearly half of German respondents put focus on migration
Since 2022, an increasing number of Europeans say their government should prioritize "reducing immigration," rising from just under 20% to a quarter.
Meanwhile, concern about climate change was on the slide across the continent.
"In 2024, for the first time, reducing immigration is a greater priority for most Europeans than fighting climate change," the report said.
"Nowhere is this reversal more striking than in Germany, which now leads the world with the highest share of people who want their government to focus on reducing immigration — topping all other priorities — and now nearly twice as high as fighting climate change," the report read.
There is concern about climate change being a problem that people need to give up things to fix. And that large corporations aren't going to do there fair share. Also it means confronting ones personal habits of flying, eating meat and driving cars. That whilst people are already afraid of not being able to afford a living.
On the other hand you can project all fear, insecurity doubt on a group of other people. A strange intangible conglomerate that you can ban from your county and project all guilt upon.
This is exploited by the far right, giving people the opium of directed anger, rather than address difficult problems and solve the underlying problem of living insecurity.