RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to a survey conducted in 28 countries, Brazil ranks 3rd among populations most open to welcoming refugees, and the majority believes that borders should be open to foreigners afflicted by wars and persecution, even during the pandemic.
The study conducted by the Ipsos institute interviewed over 19,500 people aged between 16 and 74, in 28 nations. In Brazil, 1,000 people were interviewed, and the error margin is 3.5 percentage points.
Among Brazilians, 78% said they agree that people afflicted by wars and persecution should be able to seek refuge in other countries, including Brazil. The country is tied with the Netherlands and is only behind Argentina and Italy, where 79% said likewise. The world average reached 70%.
In the opposite end, countries with respondents less open to receiving refugees in their countries were South Korea (51%), Saudi Arabia, Hungary and China (63% each).
Malaysia, Turkey, and India are the countries where the majority stated to be opposed to opening borders at this time: 82%, 75%, and 69%, respectively. Globally, the average advocating closed borders in the pandemic reached 50%.
Asked if the country should increase, decrease or maintain its spending on support for refugees as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, 38% of Brazilians said the amounts should remain unchanged, 31% believe they should be lower, and 18% stated that they should be increased.
According to international treaties, refugees are people dislocated from their country of origin due to “well-founded fear of persecution related to race, religion, nationality, membership to a particular social group or political opinion, as well as serious and widespread human rights violations and armed conflict” – the definition is from UNHCR, the UN commissioner on the matter. Venezuelans and Syrians are among the main nationalities granted refuge in Brazil.
According to the Ipsos research, 6 out of 10 respondents in the average of 28 countries answered that they are suspicious of foreigners who want to enter their country as refugees. In their opinion, these are people who want to enter for economic reasons or to take advantage of welfare services offered by the government.
Turkey (81%), Malaysia (76%) and Russia (75%) were the countries with the highest index of mistrust, and the USA (49%), Japan (50%) and Canada (52%), at the opposite end. Brazilians are close Canadians, with 54%.