Majority of Spanish Citizens Believe 'Too Many' Migrants in Country, Poll Shows

More than two-thirds of Spanish citizens think that their country accommodates "too many" immigrants, however do not widely support radical right-wing parties, the Elcano Royal Institute's survey revealed Wednesday.

MADRID (Sputnik) — According to the poll, 74 percent of respondents believed that the number of migrants in the country was excessive, however, only four percent considered migration to be an important national problem. At the same time, the issue of unemployment worries the Spanish people far more — 19 percent said this was a major problem for the country, along with corruption, economic issues and politics.

The survey noted that 41 percent of the respondents said that they would possibly vote for the party which stands for curbing migration, while 48 percent said that they would hardly vote or would not vote for such a party. The research specified that 77 percent of the respondents believe that Spanish nationals should be given the priority when being employed.

Elcano Royal Institute carried out surveys jointly with other research centers in Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Poland and Sweden. The work was coordinated by the UK Demos think thank.

The European Union has been struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis which escalated in 2015 with hundreds of thousands of people form the Middle East and North Africa seeking asylum in the EU member states.