If there are two hotly contested debates drawing parallels across the world, there is the one on globalization and the other on the migrant crises that have plagued many borders. YouGov, an internet market-research firm recently used data from 19 countries to gauge public sentiment on globalization, migrants and the sense of ‘country pride/nationalistic fervour’.
In its report, the firm’s conclusion is that 18 out of the 19 countries they reached out to were still in the green on globalization and considered it to be a force for good. However, recent incidents from the west have particularly exposed the fissures in lala-land.
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In the US, President-Elect Donald Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric has found resonance and the UK had Brexit just prior to that. France has been dealing with its own immigration problems and remains in a state of Emergency after a spate of terrorist attacks.
Courtesy: YouGov
The first chart brings focus to how countries view globalization and unsurprisingly, it’s the countries from the east and the far-east (who have benefited more from the internet) who think that a smaller world is a better one. Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia rank high with India right up there in third spot. And unsurprisingly, Australia, Saudi Arabia and the UK feel that globalization has messed it up for them. Bringing up the rear are the US and France (surprise, surprise!) who are clearly not enamoured by all the ‘terrorism’ landing up at their doorstep.
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Courtesy: YouGov
The second figure sheds light on how your country views immigration and Vietnam, the Philippines and Australia are up there. The country which has its arms open the widest is the UAE (because it likes Indians from a certain south-western coastal state) followed by India. Then again, Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia have a dim view of travelers while France and particularly Indonesia have something close to disdain for them backpackers.
Courtesy: YouGov
Finally, the good fellows at YouGov also have a patriot-o-meter which tells you who-loves-their-country-the-most. No surprises for guessing here that the Americans, who spend as much of their time chirping about the best-country-in-the-world as an average Indian does in a bank queue currently, top the chart. Apparently with all the dichotomy of being a ‘superpower and superpoor’ as Shashi Tharoor calls it, Indians still believe, ‘East or West, India is the best’. Speaking of others, Australia , the UAE and Thailand consider they’re doing fairly well while Singapore, Sweden,Vietnam and Germany are dismayed with their fate in increasing order of frustration. And going by ‘hard data’, the French do come across as a pretty miserable bunch in the present context.
