Another poll highlights the growing frustration of German citizens over a huge influx of migrants, which could spell trouble for Germany’s left-wing, pro-immigration government.
According to a survey conducted by the INSA opinion research institute for the newspaper Bild am Sonntag, the majority of German citizens, 51 percent, believe their country is taking in too many refugees. Another 33 percent think the number is appropriate, and only 11 percent of respondents believe Germany should take in more people.
Germany has been struggling with an ongoing migration crisis, with over 1.2 million people arriving in the country last year. While the majority are from Ukraine, an increase in asylum seekers from non-European countries was also recorded. The government has resorted to emergency measures across the country, including building tent cities in airports and converting supermarkets and boats into migrant accommodations.
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In many cases, residents in small towns and villages are learning that hundreds and sometimes even thousands of migrants will be housed in the area with little warning. For example, in the village of Bach in the Upper Palatinate, which has just 1,100 inhabitants, migrants will now be housed on the MS Rossini ship, with residents now protesting the move.
Ukrainians are under no obligation to apply for asylum, but other migrants are. In Germany last year, more people applied for asylum than at any time since 2016, with just under 218,000 people filing asylum claims according to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. That amounted to a 47 percent increase over 2021.
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The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has long favored a lax immigration policy that has seen 2 million non-European migrants arrive in the country, is now backtracking to some extent on its pro-immigration stance. The party is now calling for a summit over the matter to address growing problems in the federal states, including a lack of housing and school spots due to rising immigration numbers.
The CDU’s parliamentary manager, Thorston Frei, told Tagesspiegel am Sonntag that a “limit on asylum migration and a solution for distribution, care, and accommodation” must be addressed at the summit.
The institute asked 1,003 people on behalf of the newspaper on Friday for their opinion. “But such a summit cannot be solely about sharing the costs of reception and accommodation,” he said. “We must finally talk about effective measures to limit asylum migration.”
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As previously reported by Remix News, a number of polls as of late have shown growing German apprehension over mass immigration. For example, a poll from December last year found that 68 percent of Germans were concerned about growing immigration numbers. Another earlier poll also showed that the majority of Germans were “very worried” about how many migrants were arriving in the country.
Despite growing concerns on the topic of immigration, Germany’s left-wing government is pursuing a number of initiatives to open the country to up to 500,000 migrants per year and relaxing citizenship laws that could result in 2 million immigrants becoming citizens overnight.
The overwhelmingly negative poll comes at a time when Germany’s population reaches 84 million, making it one of the most densely populated countries on Earth. Recent high-profile murders, such as the stabbing murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl by an Eritrean migrant in the town of Illerkirchberg as well as mass riots on New Year’s Eve involving predominately migrant men have also reignited a debate about the security risks of continued mass immigration.
Earlier, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister President Hendrik Wüst (CDU), along with other states, warned that critical services are being overloaded due to growing migration numbers. Wüst demanded the government release funds promised by the federal government in a letter to Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD).
