Two surveys conducted last year show that Europeans, especially Greeks and Italians, hold negative views of migrants entering their countries. Few people want to see an increase in immigration, whereas Greece and Italy wanted less immigrants with, eight out of 10 people calling for fewer crossings. 51% of Greeks say immigrants are to blame for crime more than other groups and 56% wanted harsher laws in the Spring 2014.

As with previous such studies no difference is given between people legally emigrating from one country to another, and groups of people — often without any ID papers, documents etc. — simply crossing into another country’s territory in a clandestine manner for whatever purpose, ranging from the very real need to seek asylum, on the one hand, to criminal intent, on the other side of the spectrum.