Foreign Affairs

Poll: Half Of Germans Now Feel Like Strangers In Their Own Country

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Half of Germans sometimes feel like foreigners in their own country after more than one million refugees relocated there in 2015, according to a study released Wednesday.

The survey of 2,420 people shows a clear rise in negative attitudes towards immigration. The number of people who said they occasionally feel like strangers in Germany is up from 30.2 percent in 2009. About 40 percent of respondents want a ban on Muslim immigration. (RELATED: Majority Of Germans Don’t Think There is A Place For Islam In Society)

About 10 percent of Germans want the country to be run by a “Führer” — the dictatorship role Adolf Hitler held from 1934 until his death in 1945. (RELATED: Historians: Hitler Had A Micro Penis) 

A slightly larger number of people, 11 percent, said Jews have too much influence in society.

University of Leipzig Professor Oliver Decker, one of the authors of the survey, said German population appears to have gotten more polarized in recent years.

“There has been no increase in extreme right attitudes, but in comparison with our study from two years ago people who have far-right attitudes are more prepared to use violence to achieve their aims,” Decker said in the study.

Decker said the general resentment toward migrants fell slightly, but that negative attitudes toward Muslims and Roma people increased.

Almost 40 percent agreed with a statement that immigrants only come to Germany to take advantage of its welfare system.

The study was conducted by the University of Leipzig in co-operation with the Heinrich Boell Foundation, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and the Otto-Brenner Foundation.

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