In EU-Wide Poll, Majority Think Migrant Integration ‘Unsuccessful’, Figure Rises to 73 Per Cent in Sweden

German police lead arriving migrants alongside a street to a transport facility after gath
Johannes Simon/Getty

A European Commission poll has found that a strong majority of people in France, Germany, and Sweden believe the integration of migrants has failed in their country.

People in all 28 member states were asked: “Generally speaking, how successful or not is the integration of most immigrants living in [your country].”

Overall, across the open borders bloc, 55 per cent of people said integration it is going badly and 39 per cent said it had been a success, according to the survey commissioned by the European Union’s (EU) unelected executive branch.

In Sweden, the picture was bleak, with just 24 per cent of respondents saying they thought integration was going well, and a shocking 73 per cent saying it has gone badly.

In Germany, only 31 per cent of people think integration has gone well, with 63 per cent thinking it is unsuccessful. In France, it was a similar situation with 64 per cent of people thinking it has been unsuccessful and 27 per cent saying otherwise.

In Britain, the picture was slightly more positive, with 55 per cent of respondents saying it has been successful compared to 36 per cent who said it was unsuccessful.

In Italy, the situation was worse than Germany, but better than Sweden, with 63 saying integration was going bad and just 27 agreeing it was going well.

In low-immigration Hungary, respondents were a little more optimistic than the Germans, with the latter’s government adopting an open border approach and the former’s erecting a border wall and campaigning strongly against mass migration.

Marginally fewer Hungarians (32 per cent) said integration was going badly than in Angela Merkel’s Germany and significantly less (55 per cent) said it was going badly.

The survey was carried out by TNS Political & Social network in the 28 states between the 21st and 30th of October last year and published in April. Around 28,000 people were questioned.

The revelations of negative attitudes towards the success of integration across Europe comes shortly after another pan-European poll which found 78 per cent across the continent wanted tighter border control. Separate BBC research released last week reported Europe as the most divided continent in the world, with immigration the largest source of division.

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