Outlook on economy impacts people's views on immigration worldwide: Gallup

WASHINGTON - People's views about their national and personal economic situations may be the strongest predictors of their attitudes toward immigration, according to a Gallup study of attitudes toward immigration in 142 countries.

Worldwide, people who say their economic situations are "poor" or "getting worse" are more likely to favor lower immigration levels in their countries. The reverse is also true, as those who see their situations as "good" or "getting better" are more likely to want to see higher levels of immigration, Gallup found.

These findings released Monday are among those featured in the International Organization for Migration's new report entitled "How the World Views Migration," which is based on Gallup World Poll interviews with more than 183,000 adults across 142 countries between 2012 and 2014, Gallup said.

Globally, adults who believe economic conditions in their countries are "fair" or "poor" are almost twice as likely to say immigration levels should decrease, at 42 percent, as are those who say conditions are "excellent" or "good," at 25 percent.

The same pattern is evident when examining people's outlooks for their countries' economic future -- those who say conditions are "getting worse" are nearly twice as likely to say immigration should decrease as those who say conditions are "getting better" (48 percent vs. 25 percent), according to Gallup.

In nearly all regions of the world, people who see their economic conditions as excellent or good are more likely to have positive outlooks on immigration. These gaps are quite large in several countries, including the United States (46 percent vs. 25 percent), Germany (43 percent vs. 25 percent), Canada (41 percent vs. 21 percent) and China (22 percent vs. 11 percent), Gallup found.

Africa follows the global pattern, but the differences in attitudes toward immigration based on economic views are not as large as in other regions. In addition to Africa, in some countries, such as South Korea, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Jordan, Israel, Iraq, Malta, Belgium, Macedonia and Venezuela, there is no or very little difference in attitudes toward immigration by people's perceptions about the national economy, Gallup said.

Adults who live in countries with the highest unemployment rates show the most negative attitudes toward immigration to their countries. Nearly half of adults in countries with unemployment rates higher than 15 percent believe immigration should decrease, according to Gallup.