http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index....story_id=60774
By Dennis Maliwanag
THE PHILIPPINES is globally the friendliest country to migrants, while Thailand has the biggest number of xenophobic citizens.
The latest Gallup International Voice of the People survey also found that more than half of Asians -- 56 percent -- consider immigration тАЬa good thing for their own country,тАЭ even as negative sentiments prevail in the world against people moving from their native land to settle in another country.
The study found 87 percent of Filipinos believing that immigration is good for the country whose own citizens -- five million or so -- have left to work and live in foreign lands.
Malaysia is next to the Philippines in multiethnic Asia as most welcoming to migrants at 80 percent, followed by Vietnam at 68 percent.
Topping Asia and the world in animosity toward migrants at 82 percent is Thailand, whose robust economy attracts cross-border movements of people from neighboring Mekong countries fleeing poverty or countryside war.
Industrializing Taiwan is second most xenophobic in the region at 55 percent, followed by Hong Kong at 47 percent, and Indonesia at 38 percent.
A similar polarity found in Asia can be seen in the Middle East.
Turkey, a country where immigration is тАЬmost negatively regardedтАЭ at 87 percent, is in sharp contrast with Israel, where 87 percent of people favor immigration.
On a regional basis, Africa is top in embracing migrants at 63 percent, Asia Pacific at 56 percent, and North America at 54 percent.
In North America, 74 percent of Canadians are pro-immigration. Opinions are more divided in the United States, where immigration rules have become stringent following the September 11 terror attacks in 2001. Forty-four percent of Americans do not support immigration.
The Middle East meanwhile has recorded the highest percentage of negative opinion toward immigrants at 67 percent, Eastern and Central Europe at 61 percent, and Latin America at 53 percent.
One long-held theory on peopleтАЩs intolerance toward migration concerns fear immigrants will rob locals of domestic jobs, the study said.
тАЬHowever, results from the Voice of the People survey do not back this view,тАЭ the study said.
тАЬOne of the main conclusions is that no difference can be found in the opinion of those working [44 percent believing immigration is good], those not working [45 percent] and the unemployed [45 percent],тАЭ it said.
Conducted by market information company TNS, the Gallup International study interviewed around 55,000 citizens in close to 70 countries around the world.[/color]