More than half of Romanians believe that Romania should not receive refugees
Most Romanians don't want any refugees in their country while those who are more open to taking in immigrants say that the country should decide on the number and not be forced to accept one set by the European Union, according to a recent INSCOP survey.
Over 95% of Romanians have heard of the refugee crisis in the Middle East. More than half of respondents (56.2%) believe that Romania should not accept any refugees and only 35% agree with letting in some immigrants. However, 82% of those who think that Romania should receive refugees say that the country should establish its own quota and less than 15% believe that Romania should receive the number of refugees demanded by the EU.
All in all, only about 5% of Romanians agree with the mandatory refugee quotas proposed by the European Commission. Romania should take in over 6,300 refugees, according to this allocation mechanism, more than the 1,700 accepted by the Romanian officials.
Romania's President Klaus Iohannis participates today (September 22) in an extraordinary meeting of the 28 EU member states' representatives in Brussels, which aims to reconcile the European countries over the refugee problem. Romania and other Eastern European member states have been opposing the mandatory refugee quotas. On the other hand, Germany and Austria have threatened to sanction EU members that don't accept the quotas by reducing their access to EU funds.
The INSCOP survey also shows that 26.5% of Romanians would accept refugees to settle in Romania while 65.3% disagree, and 24.4% would be ok with them settling in their city (67.1% disagree).
Almost 42% of Romanians believe that the refugees/immigrants came to the EU because of the war in the Middle East, 23.4% think that this migration involves groups that want to destabilize Europe, and 23.3% believe that the immigrants come to Europe because of poverty in their home areas.
Nearly 30% of respondents strongly believe that Romania might become a transit country for the refugees/immigrants from the Middle East. In comparison, 23.9% of Romanians strongly believe that Romania might become the refugees’ destination.
The survey was conducted by INSCOP at the request of Adevarul newspaper between September 10 and September 15. Over 1,000 people participated in this survey.
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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com
