British people feel very differently about some refugees than others

Dr Paolo Morini Writing in The Conversation, Dr Paolo Morini (UCL Political Science) and Professor David Hudson of the University of Birmingham delve into survey results finding significant differences in public opinion about refugees coming from Afghanistan versus Ukraine. As of late May, in the three months since Russia invaded Ukraine, 6.8 million refugees had fled the war into other countries. The majority, some 3.6 million people, headed to Poland, while another million went to Romania. European Union nations and others began offering visa waivers and other schemes to help Ukrainians. The UK, for example, is currently home to about 60,000 refugees from Ukraine. Further east of Europe, the people of Afghanistan are experiencing conflict which has lasted for over 40 years. More than 2.6 million Afghan refugees are registered with the UN's refugee agency alone, with an increasing number of people fleeing the country in the wake of the Taliban takeover.