Reducing migration is the most important political issue for 34% of Austrians, scoring the highest number among the countries polled by the Alliance of Democracies’ global survey, the “Democracy Perception Index”, published on Wednesday, May 10th.
Among other questions, the index asked people in 53 countries on all continents to identify the top three legislative priorities their governments should focus on.
While reducing poverty, fighting corruption, and improving healthcare and education lead the overall charts, in Europe, issues such as fighting climate change, promoting gender equality, and reducing migration also land in some prominent spots.
Naturally, this phenomenon can be especially observed in the case of migration, as European countries have been divided on its core dilemmas since the start of the 2015 refugee crisis. As the Index also points out:
While only 12% of people globally selected “reduce migration” as one of their top three priorities for their government to focus on, it is far more of a top priority in Europe than in the rest of the world.
Indeed, nine out of the top ten countries where reducing migration has been identified as a priority are located in Europe. Austria is leading the pack with 34%, closely followed by Germany (31%), the Netherlands (30%), France (28%), and Sweden (27%).
The sixth place is reserved for the only non-European nation among the runner-ups: Chile, (with 26%). Belgium, Ireland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom also ended up among the top ten countries that see combating migration as a clear legislative priority.
On the other hand, Central European countries, such as Poland or Hungary, which have been consistently opposing mass migration to Europe for years, did not even get into the top ten—which is understandable, given that migration is more or less a solved issue there.
Austria’s leading position in wishing to reduce migration is not too surprising either. Located right on the main European migration route between the Balkans and the Northwest European countries that are serving as migrants’ primary destinations, Austria has endured wave after wave of mass illegal entry attempts, while also registering a sharp increase in violent crimes since the crisis began.
Almost as if to explain the statistics, there were no less than four knife attacks in the Austrian capital over the past weekend, prompting FPÖ security spokesman Hannes Amesbauer to call for “a paradigm shift in asylum and migration policy” in response to this “unbelievable wave of violence, [that’s] clearly the product of illegal mass migration.”
Needless to say, the most popular destination countries of Europe—such as Germany, Sweden, and France—are in no better shape, which explains why their people also put such a high emphasis on reducing migration.
On an unrelated, but interesting note, Austria scored highest on two other questions as well. On the global list, Austrians turned out to be the least satisfied with their government’s COVID-19 management (51% disapprove), and—together with the Greeks—are the ones who view the U.S.’ foreign interventionism in the most negative light in Europe.
