Society continues to support refugees, and Gen Z shows the most empathy

Why this is important

• Most people still support the right to seek asylum
• The number of resettlements decreased massively
• Misinformation does not erode society’s sense of compassion
• The Refugee Convention marks 75 years of protection

Revealing new data on Tuesday, the UN refugee agency, UNHCRsaid that despite the growing number of fake news and hate speech regarding asylum seekers, public support for refugees is stronger than public debate often suggests.

This support has remained steady over the years, “despite political tensions, economic pressures, and as you all know well, Very polarized debate”, said Dominique Hyde, Director of External Relations at UNHCR.

Together with pollster Ipsos, the agency found that two in three people in 29 countries agreed that those fleeing war or persecution should be able to seek refuge in another country.

Double vision

At the same time, most people believe that many of those seeking protection do not actually need it. “A lot of these people are the same people; they hold both views at the same time,” said Trinh Tu, Managing Director of Ipsos UK.

“What we see now is a tension between people who want to provide assistance to those who need it most, but at the same time also have doubts about whether the system is working as it should,” in particular, the asylum system, border management and integration, Tu explained.

Generous to a fault

This perspective appears to hold true in the UK, where “we have the lowest net migration in the UK, yet at the same time, half the population thinks that immigration has actually gone mad”, although the facts show otherwise, he added.

In Germany and Sweden, where refugee numbers are “quite large”, UNHCR’s Hyde noted that support for asylum seekers remains relatively strong. In Turkey and Poland, support was not as strong as in previous years.

I sat with mothers, I sat with fathers who only had little money for food

The veteran humanitarian official stressed the need for continued international support for asylum seekers, citing the difficulties many countries face in trying to accommodate tens of thousands of people fleeing conflict. “Generosity cannot replace this international responsibility,” Ms. Hyde stressed.

He described his visit to the Busuma camp in eastern Burundi, which hosts more than 57,000 Congolese refugees who have fled heavy fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Only about four in 10 people have a place to live, even though conditions at 2,000 meters are very bad.

“I sit with mothers, I sit with fathers who are short of food,” said Ms. Hyde. “I listened to families describe their overcrowded shelters, whether they were lucky enough to have a shelter. I talked to families about how water unsafe they felt. And not only is it unsafe, it’s also not enough. And the night was spent in a cold place because it was at an altitude of 2000 meters, and during the day it was just blazing hot.”

The concerns of the boomer generation

Of the more than 21,500 people surveyed, younger respondents were much more positive about refugees than the Baby Boomer generation.

Nearly half of generation Z (born 1997 – 2012) believe that refugees will successfully integrate, compared with 39 percent of the Baby Boomer generation (1946 –1964).

“Generation Z respondents were less likely to support border closures or express doubts about refugees’ motivations. However, concerns about integration, border management and the authenticity of asylum claims remain among some age groups,” UNHCR said.

Supporting role

The UNHCR-Ipsos survey shows that the greatest support for refugees is in Sweden and the Netherlands (78 percent), followed by Spain (76 percent). Australia, Brazil and the United States expressed the most positive views regarding the benefits of refugee integration.

Some countries showed marked change over time, including in Japan, where support for asylum seekers rose to 64 percent from 23 percent in 2019, and in France, where the number rose to 68 percent from 43 percent in the same period.

When asked about specific displacement situations and how they would respond, communities prioritized immediate emergency assistance, alongside diplomatic measures and temporary protection.

These findings suggest that many people believe that refugee protection should include more alternatives than resettlement, although this remains an important pathway to protection for the most vulnerable refugees. 75 years after the Refugee Convention was adopted in Geneva.

“What we know is that many people support the right to seek safety and also question whether the asylum system is fair, efficient and well-managed,” Hyde said. “It is an important message for this anniversary that, 75 years later, the challenge is not only to defend the Convention, but also to ensure that the promise succeeds.”