Icelanders’ Approval Of Immigrants Depends On Origin

Whether Icelanders view immigrants positively or negatively depends a great deal on their country of origin, and race appears to be a big factor as well.

Kjarninn reports that a new poll from Maskína recently asked respondents how they felt about immigrants from different parts of the world. Their answers revealed a lot about Icelandic attitudes towards new arrivals.

Of those who responded, 72% said they were very favourable of immigrants from western and northern Europe, while only 5% were against them. 66% were favorable towards North Americans, and 59% were favourable towards Australians.

After these top three, 58% viewed southern Europeans as favourable, while 52% were favourable of eastern Europeans and 51% said the same of Central and South Americans. Opposition to all these demographics was within 20%.

Past this point, only 48% of respondents said they viewed immigrants from Asia (outside of the Middle East) favourably, while 22% were against them. African immigrants were viewed less favourably still, with 45% supportive and 26% against them settling in Iceland.

Viewed least favourably of all were immigrants from the Middle East. Only 43% said they were supportive of immigrants from the Middle East, while 34% were against them.