Immigrati
Di James Blitz
(www.affaritaliani.it) - Londra, martedí 7 settembre 2010. Un sondaggio d’opinione condotto tra i cittadini dei maggiori paesi europei rivela un alto livello di ostilità nei confronti degli immigrati. L’indagine, condotta dall’agenzia Harris per conto del Financial Times, afferma per che un’ampia fetta di persone i migranti abbiano abbassato la qualità della vita, con conseguenze negative sull’economia, sui servizi pubblici e sul mercato del lavoro. L’indagine, condotta in Italia, Spagna, Francia, Germania, Regno Unito e Stati Uniti (presi come termine di confronto) afferma che per il 64% dei britannici l’immigrazione ha peggiorato il paese, una percentuale superiore a quella di Spagna, Italia (entrambe attorno al 60%), Usa (50%), Germania (44%) e Francia (40%).
Molto alte anche le percentuali di quanti dicono che l’immigrazione ha peggiorato i servizi, con i britannici che per oltre i due terzi affermano che il servizio sanitario nazionale e quello scolastico patiscono l’alto numero di immigrati. Negli altri paesi si sono registrate percentuali inferiori ma ugualmente elevate. Sono invece gli spagnoli quelli che si sentono più danneggiati dagli immigrati nella ricerca di un lavoro: per il 67%, l’immigrazione ha reso più difficile trovare un lavoro, in un paese dove si registra un tasso i disoccupazione del 20%. Per il 34% degli spagnoli inoltre, l’immigrazione si è tradotta anche in una diminuzione dei salari. Per molti degli intervistati, l’immigrazione ha anche un impatto negativo sull’economia in generale, con i britannici e spagnoli a guidare la classifica con il 52% di risposte affermative, seguiti dai i francesi al 48%, dagli statunitensi al 44%, da gli italiani al 42% e dai tedeschi al 32%.
Ma il rapporto rivela anche che questa ostilità nei confronti degli immigrati non viene giustificata da un’effettiva crescita della pressione migratoria, ma piuttosto dalla retorica della classe dirigente. Prendendo l’esempio della Germania emerge che l’ostilità nei confronti degli immigrati sia elevata nonostante un calo nel numero di immigrati che raggiungono il paese e un aumento in quelli che lo lasciano a causa della crisi economica e delle difficoltà a trovare un lavoro.
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L’articolo del Financial Times
By James Blitz in London
6 september 2010 - More than six out of 10 Britons believe immigration to the UK is spoiling the quality of life, suggesting that the British are more hostile to immigrants than people in France, Germany, Spain or Italy, according to a new poll. As a number of European governments continue to face fierce political disputes over the issue, a Harris poll for the Financial Times indicates that Britain is the state in western Europe where antipathy to immigrants is greatest, closely followed by Spain. The survey, conducted towards the end of last month, shows some 64 per cent of Britons believe the current level of immigration is making their country “a worse place to live”. The UK also scored the highest figure of any country in the survey when respondents were asked whether immigration had an adverse effect on state education and health systems. Some 63 per cent of Britons thought immigration levels made the National Health Service worse while 66 per cent said it made the state education system worse. The poll comes in the wake of remarks by immigration minister Damian Green, who said the UK needed to look harder at who was qualifying for visas after research showed more than a fifth of foreign students were still in the country after five years. In his first major speech since the coalition took office, Mr Green said on Monday levels of net migration, which rose by a fifth last year to 196,000, must be brought down and “all routes into the UK” must be studied to ensure that only the “brightest and best” people came to study or work. The FT survey reveals that Spaniards are the other national group particularly exercised by immigration, with concerns focused on employment. Spain’s jobless rate is 20 per cent. Six in 10 Spaniards said immigration was making their country a worse place to live. Some 67 per cent of Spanish respondents thought immigration to their country was making it harder to find a job, a figure well above those of other states. Some 32 per cent of Spaniards thought they were being paid less as a result of the number of immigrants entering the job market – again a figure considerably higher than in other states. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has been divided over the tough line he has taken towards the Roma population which is being forcibly removed from the country. The poll shows that some 48 per cent of French respondents believe immigration has a negative impact on the economy, against 26 per cent who say it is positive. Germany came last of any of the states when respondents were asked whether immigration was bad for the economy. Just 32 per cent of German respondents took this view, against 52 per cent who felt the same in the UK. Immigration experts argue that fears are often based on false perceptions rather than facts. Although 40 per cent of Germans say immigration is making the country a worse place to live, Turkish emigration to Germany has declined dramatically since 2000. Other states have seen an outflow of ethnic minorities as the financial crisis has hit western economies.