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According to a study, a third of all young Europeans are critical of migration. A political scientist explains why this is the case and why “Sylt is just a video clip”.
For young people in Europe, the issue of asylum and migration is becoming increasingly important. Even more important than climate protection. This is shown by the results of the eighth representative youth study “Young Europe”, for which the opinion research institute YouGov surveyed around 5,800 people between the ages of 16 and 26 in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Poland in March 2024.
36 percent of respondents consider migration to be the most pressing problem at European level. This puts the issue of migration at the forefront of the debate since 2019 (start of the Fridays For Futuremovement) most important issue of recent years, environmental and climate protection, came in second place by a wide margin: In 2023, 33 percent of young people still found climate protection the most important issue, but now this figure is only 26 percent. European electionsin which for the first time in Germany young people from 16 are allowed to vote, these results are exciting.
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Migration displaces climate protection and is the most pressing issue for Europe’s youth
From 2023 to 2024, the proportion of young people in Germany who consider climate protection to be the most important issue fell from 39 percent to 33 percent. 46 percent of respondents named asylum and migration as the most pressing issue, an increase of over ten percent compared to the previous year (34 percent). Around a third (32 percent) of all young Germans want opportunities to move to the EU At the European level, 34 percent of respondents said so.
Are Europe’s youth becoming more critical of migration, asks BuzzFeed News Germany from IPPEN.MEDIA Thorsten Faas, political scientist at the FU Berlin, who scientifically accompanied the youth study. “Since we did not ask this question every year, we cannot trace any developments,” he said in a press conference on May 28, 2024.
From other studies he can say: “Attitudes towards immigration are not changing dramatically, but rather the attributions of what is currently socially relevant.” The topics chosen by the public, including the media and politicians, have a major influence on what people consider important and what they consider less important. “This is a pattern that shapes societies as a whole. The things we talk about a lot are reflected in attitudes.”
This is an article by BuzzFeed News Germany. We are part of the IPPEN.MEDIAnetwork. Here you can find all contributions from BuzzFeed News Germany.
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Study shows: “Europe’s youth are a very diverse group”
“It is not surprising that all positions are represented among Europe’s youth,” says Faas BuzzFeed News GermanyThe young generation is “not a homogeneous group”, which is also evident in the “exciting” difference between the sexes. While 39 percent of young European men want to restrict opportunities to move to the EU, the figure for women is only 30 percent, according to the study by the TUI Foundation.
Young women are progressive, Men tend to be more conservative, which is also shown by studies on care work “Similar to the 2021 federal election, where young women voted most for the Greens and young men voted most for the FDP,” says Faas. The TUI study results are above all proof that young Europeans do not take a clear position in the political system. “Europe’s youth are a very diverse group with different backgrounds.”
Incidents such as the racist slogans on Sylt therefore only show part of the reality. “The video on Sylt was not pretty, it was actually very ugly. But Sylt is only a video snippet,” says the political scientist BuzzFeed News Germany. Basically, the study shows that young people appreciate the achievements and values of the EU. “It is always worth taking a closer look. We do not have an anti-democratic Generation Z. That is why we should not focus so much on a video clip, but look optimistically to the future.”
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