Support For Ukrainian Refugees Is High In Europe. That May Not Last.
In the wake of Russias invasion, millions of refugees are fleeing Ukraine. Support for these refugees is currently very high: Recent polls have found residents of other European countries overwhelmingly support taking in Ukrainian refugees, including 77 percent in Estonia, 80 percent in France, 85 percent in Austria, 89 percent in Italy and 90 percent in Germany.
This level of support is different from the last sudden influx of refugees in Europe in 2015, when 1.3 million people from several Middle Eastern and African countries sought asylum in Europe, many fleeing the Syrian civil war. In that instance, public support for refugees was much lower. For example, 27 percent of Brits said in a 2015 poll that they didnt think the U.K. should accept any Syrian refugees, while a recent poll from early March shows just 11 percent saying the same about Ukrainians. In Poland, support for accepting Ukrainian refugees is over 90 percent now, which stands in stark contrast to where the country has historically stood on the question of whether to accept refugees. Even 74 percent of Americans say they support accepting Ukrainian refugees, although Americans have long been reluctant to accept refugees from various international conflicts.
Racism and anti-Muslim sentiments explain, at least in part, why many Europeans were less willing to accept refugees from Arab and predominantly Muslim countries, as studies have found that race and religion are very important in determining which refugees are accepted versus which refugees are turned away. But public opinion toward Syrian refugees also ebbed and flowed in Europe, with some countries initially very supportive.
In fact, that trajectory is not uncommon in humanitarian crises: Support for refugees can start relatively high in the immediate aftermath of a disaster to only crater as news cycles change, anecdotal accounts of difficulties emerge and sympathies move on. Its one reason why support for Ukrainian refugees may ultimately prove to be short-lived, too.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/support-for-ukrainian-refugees-is-high-in-europe-that-may-not-last/