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.
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.
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.
I've got news for you guys, one of these things is going to radically affect the other.
Maybe the key to getting old people to care about climate change is to frame the mass displacement and migration that will occur as a direct result of it.
Ameribro here. I've hosted a German exchange kid. She was really, really worried about immigration and "preserving German culture". I pointed out to her that:
Culture is not a fixed thing, it's always drifting a little bit, with or without immigrants. That's why old people always complain about how different everything is.
Germany is actually younger than the US as a state by about a century, and contemporary Germany has really only existed since either the end of WW2 or the fall of the Soviet Union, depending on your view. (IMO, the collapse of East Germany is non-trivial. Her mom was an East German and described to us how they had an entirely separate culture with different groceries and everything and all that just vaporized into nothing when the wall fell, replaced with West German culture almost overnight). So, what does it really even mean to be defending German culture?
There's always hardship when a new group of people arrive, but over time you usually end up with something that's better than what you had before if you can learn to embrace it. US culture has, in spite of our issues with racism, tangibly benefitted from immigration over the centuries.
She wasn't receptive to it. A lot of Europeans who hold anti-immigratiom views insist that it's different for Europe when they have immigrants than it is for the US. I've yet to have one persuasively explain why that's true and not just whiny exceptionalism.
Yet, in typical European fashion they would much much much rather interpret "reduce immigration" to mean "be mean to poor people here" than to mean "help stabilize developing nations and allow their economies to grow without squeezing them out using our country's dominant economic position (so people don't become economic migrants) and without support for bombing them every other decade (so people don't become war refugees)", which of course includes "address climate change (so people don't become climate refugees)".
No upstream thinking, just fascism fascism fascism.
Climate change is an existential threat. They can see those swarthy heathens filling their cities and stealing their jobs or whatever the fuck they think whenever they see someone of a darker skin tone than themselves.
Guess what's going to exacerbate the migration issue, Germany?
I should get my emigration plans ready, I hate the German boomer racism and how it infected the younger population.
Fuck racists, no matter how they label themselves.
It’s literally the same issue. Changing climate is going to force mass migrations. Don’t like brown people? Maybe do everything you can to make sure their countries of origin remain liveable and prosperous. I’m guessing many would rather that then coming to some xenophobic land of full of a-holes in order to carve out some semblance of a future for their families.
Anyone have an understanding of how much migration Germany has lately? Is this all still a hang over from the Syrian refugee intake under Merkel? Is Germany a favoured destination generally within Europe? Or are Germans just “sensitive” about darker coloured people (which would be a bit odd given the Turkish migration that occurred after the war, unless that never went well either)?
Welp, solve climate change and the migration crisis will go away. (along with stopping the exploitation of resources and interference in poor countries affairs.)
I remember everyone was shitting on Poland but now everyone realises they were right all along. Everything they warned about happened. The people that denied it now have egg on their face.
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.
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.
"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.
The authors found that the greatest perceived threat globally was war and violent conflict, followed by poverty and hunger, and then climate change.
"In the past four years, this perception has remained highest in Latin America, lowest in Asia and has steadily increased in Europe since 2020 — particularly in Germany, the report said.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, chair of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, said the figures were "a wake-up call for all democratic governments."
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I'm in the weird position of wanting both - closed borders and a reversal of climate change, so the next election is going to be interesting for me. They seem to be mutually exclusive in party programs
If you are starting to like a European, especially a German, make sure to ask them their opinions on Syrians and Turks. Their answers may surprise you!