05 Oct Southeast European countries are the least open to accepting migrants

According to US analytics company Gallup, which released a new survey on September 23, finding that countries from Southeast Europe are among the least accepting of migrants.

The lowest score in the Migrant Acceptance Index – 1.49 points out of 9 points – was recorded in North Macedonia, closely followed by Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. Canada was the most accepting country towards migrants in the world, scoring 8.46 out of 9 points.

Gallup’s Migrant Acceptance Index is based on three questions; whether people think migrants living in their country, becoming their neighbours and marrying into their families are good things or bad things. The company asked these questions in 140 countries in 2016 and 2017 and updated the results in 2019.

Thailand, Bosnia and Turkey were new to the list of least-accepting countries in 2019. Turkey’s appearance, with 2.53 points, “likely reflects the burden the country took on with the 2016 deal with the EU to keep refugees in its territory”, Gallup suggested, noting that the country currently hosts around 4 million refugees and migrants, and that “the 2016 deal has since collapsed”.

As BIRN reported earlier, Bosnia has run out of capacity to accommodate all the migrants and refugees trying to cross the country en route to Western Europe, leaving many to sleep in forests or at roadsides. This may have affected Bosnia’s score.

The largest decline in 2019 compared to 2016, when the last such survey was conducted, was recorded in Croatia, where in 2016 the result was 2.39 index points, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the result of the 2016 survey gave 2.71 index points.

Here you find more about the survey: https://news.gallup.com/poll/320678/world-grows-less-accepting-migrants.aspx

References from Balkan Insight