Released: January 12, 2010

Widespread Anti-Immigrant Sentiment in Italy

More than 1,000 immigrants have been evacuated from southern Italy after a recent wave of violence against African farm workers. Surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project over the past decade find that anti-immigrant sentiment is widespread in Italy. For example, in 2007, Italians overwhelmingly said that immigration was a big problem in their country and that immigrants &mdash- both from the Middle East and North Africa and from Eastern European countries — were having a bad impact on Italy. More recently, in the fall of 2009, more than eight-in-ten Italians said they would like to see tighter restrictions on immigration.

Read complete commentary at pewresearch.org