Romanians among least wanted immigrants in United Kingdom, YouGov survey says

Romanians are among the least wanted immigrants in the United Kingdom, according to a YouGov survey published on Monday, August 10.

Roughly 47% of respondents in the survey said that they would like to see fewer immigrants from Romania, down from 51% in 2016. Still, the figure placed Romanians in fifth place, tied with immigrants from Israel. The top places were taken by Russians (58%), Pakistanis (52%) and Nigerians (48%).

Around 18% of the Britons who took part in the public survey said that no immigrants from Romania should be accepted.

Overall, Romanians were in sixth place in the ranking of the “unwanted,” tied with immigrants from Egypt. Ahead of them were again Russians, Pakistanis, Israelis and Nigerians.

The survey also showed that 29% of those questioned believe that Romanians should be admitted, but in smaller numbers than at present. In this respect, Romanians fared the worst and shared the top position in the ranking with immigrants from India.

On the other side, 25% of Britons said that the current number of Romanian immigrants can be maintained, while 7% said that the number can be increased.

By comparison, attitudes towards migrants from Poland have improved substantially since 2016, with most Britons (53%) now either happy with current numbers or wanting more to come.

According to the survey, the immigrants viewed most favorably by the British were the Irish, Canadians, Australians, Swedes, Germans and Japanese. Immigrants from countries such as South Africa, Mexico, Thailand and China were also viewed more favorably than Romanians.

The survey also revealed that around 43% of the British believe immigration has been mostly bad for the country, up from 33% in 2016. Another 29% said it has been both good and bad, and 21% claimed it has been mostly good.

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