The FINANCIAL — Immigration can be a contentious issue in a country where citizens and immigrants compete for the same jobs and neighborhoods.
The Georgian government is very friendly to non-native visitors by allowing visa-free travel, and tacitly indefinite residency, for dozens of countries. Georgian citizens, on the other hand, are pretty clear on their stance; more than half of Georgians say that immigration is a generally “bad thing,” and only 13% see it as beneficial. Compare this with the rest of the world, which is divided nearly evenly between those who feel that immigration has a negative effect and those who view it positively.
Every year, Georgian Opinion Research Business International cooperates with other firms across the globe as a member of WIN Gallup International by conducting a Global Barometer. This annual barometer, now in its 6th year, consists of a battery of questions designed to gauge the world population’s opinions on a variety of social, political, and economic topics.
During the course of the survey, respondents are asked “Generally speaking, do you think immigration, including bringing in foreign workers, is a good thing or a bad thing for this country?” Globally, 34% of respondents said that immigration is a good thing, 38% claimed it’s bad, and 23% said that it is neither good nor bad. To more concisely discuss the attitudes of a given demographic, WIN Gallup International combines “good,” and “bad,” answers into an “Immigration Index,” which is calculated by simply subtracting the percentage of people who say that immigration is bad from those that say that it’s good; the resulting global index is -4. Georgia, though, has a very anti-immigration score of -43 – the 5th least accepting of all the countries polled.
Immigration Index |
|
Nigeria |
65 |
Pakistan |
41 |
Armenia |
30 |
China |
28 |
Ghana |
26 |
Global Average |
-4 |
-43 |
|
Belgium |
-44 |
Turkey |
-46 |
Serbia |
-59 |
Bosnia and Herzegovina |
-63 |
No National Explanations — Your average social scientist would probably suppose that attitudes toward immigration fluctuate with population density or economic situations. When housing is scarce or unemployment is high, for instance, citizens may rally against immigrants who move into their neighborhoods or “take their jobs.” While these may be very reasonable hypotheses, we don’t find much evidence in these data to support this claim, at least not on a national level.
When countries are separated into categories based on population density, we find no significant correlation between the average density of a country and its stance on immigration. Half of low and high density countries have positive Immigration Indices, along with a quarter of middle density countries. Likewise, when countries are categorized by per capita income (purchasing power standard), there doesn’t seem to be any discernable groupings; just over a third of countries with high or low per capita income have a positive Immigration index, while only a third of those with average income do.
Countries |
Positive |
Negative |
|
Income (USD) |
|
||
Low Income |
10 |
16 |
|
(Under 10,000 USD PCI at PPS) |
|
||
Middle Income |
4 |
12 |
|
(10,000 to 30,000 USD PCI at PPS) |
|||
High Income |
7 |
10 |
|
(Above 30,000 USD PCI at PPS) |
|
||
Population Density |
|
||
Low Density |
12 |
24 |
|
(< 100 persons per sq.km) |
|
||
Middle Density |
6 |
8 |
|
(101-250 persons per sq.km) |
|||
High Density |
3 |
6 |
|
(> 250 persons per sq.km) |
|
||
TOTAL |
21 |
38 |
|
Individual Level Explanations — There are, however, some very clear and significant correlations when disregarding national borders and looking at the individual level. Tolerance toward immigration decreases consistently with age, for instance. Those aged 30 years old or less have an Immigration Index of 5. We see a steady decrease with each age grouping until we reach seniors (65 years and older), who have an index of -13. There is also a clear and strong positive correlation to income level. Those at the bottom quintile of monthly household income (relative to their own countrymen) sound a fairly clear “no” to immigration, a -14. The more money someone makes, though, the more likely they are to be in favor of immigration; those in the top quintile have a positive 12.
Individuals |
Good |
Bad |
Neither |
Immigration Index |
By Age |
||||
Under 30 |
40% |
35% |
20% |
+5 |
30-50 |
34% |
40% |
22% |
-6 |
51-65 |
28% |
39% |
28% |
-12 |
65+ |
25% |
39% |
29% |
-13 |
By Income Quintile |
||||
Low |
29% |
43% |
19% |
-14 |
Medium low |
33% |
43% |
20% |
-11 |
Medium |
33% |
37% |
26% |
-4 |
Medium high |
41% |
33% |
23% |
+7 |
High |
41% |
28% |
29% |
+12 |
The President of WIN Gallup International, Jean-Marc Leger, had this to say regarding the data: “The world is divided on many issues including on whether immigration across borders is a good or bad thing. But we discover in our global poll that opinions are nevertheless borderless. Consequently, views supporting and opposing immigration cut across national boundaries. Global polling is helping to identify multinational groups which either favor or oppose immigration across borders. It is one of the most important economic realities of our time and therefore WIN-Gallup International will track this Index and measure changes in global attitudes over the years.”
GORBI conducted this poll in November 2011 and January 2012 in Georgia, along with firms affiliated with WIN-Gallup International in 58 other countries. A total of 53,433 persons were interviewed, weighted by their share of the global population, covering more than 74% of the world’s population. In general the error margin for surveys of this kind is 3-5% at 95% confidence level.
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