One in every ten respondents in a global survey said they would welcome refugees in their homes, while 80% overall said they would want their country to provide shelter.
Photo: Moas.eu/ Jason Florio
Respondents in China, Germany and the UK emerged as overall the most welcoming countries in the world.
- Globally, one person in 10 would take refugees into their home: the number rises to 46% in China, 29% in the UK and 20% in Greece, but was as low as 1% in Russia and Indonesia.
- Globally, 32% said they would accept refugees in their neighbourhood, 47% in their city/town/village and 80% in their country.
- Globally, only 17% said they would refuse refugees entry to their country. Only in one country, Russia, did more than a third of people say they would deny them access (61%).
The Refugees Welcome Index ranks countries on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 = all respondents would refuse refugees entry to the country and 100 = all respondents would accept refugees into their neighbourhood or home.
The new Refugees Welcome Index, was carried out by the internationally renowned strategy consultancy GlobeScan for by Amnesty International and surveyed more than 27,000 people.
It ranks 27 countries across all continents based on people’s willingness to let refugees live in their countries, towns, neighbourhoods and homes.
Even in countries like Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, which have taken a substantial number of refugees fleeing conflict in Syria, respondents attitudes towards refugees was overall very welcoming.
Globally, 80% of respondents would accept people fleeing war or persecution in their country. Source: Amnesty International
In Jordan, which is currently hosting around 650,000 refugees among a total population of 6.5million, 97% of respondents said they would accept people fleeing war into their country.
In Lebanon, where a population of almost 4.5 million people is hosting more than 1million Syrian refugees, 80% responded positively to the same question. Similarly, in Turkey, which has taken an estimated 2.7 million refugees since the Syrian war started, 70% respondents said they agreed that their country should shelter people fleeing war.
On the other end of the scale, the least welcoming countries were Russia, Indonesia, Thailand and Poland.
Photo: MOAS.eu/ Jason Florio.