Sixty-nine percent of EU citizens see the integration of immigrants a “long-term task” whereas 63 percent of Hungarian respondents said immigration poses a problem to their country, a survey conducted by the European Commission and released on Friday shows.

According to the EC’s special Eurobarometer survey, 53 percent of Hungarians think that most immigrants cannot be integrated and the same proportion disagrees with the view that immigrants may ease the labour shortage.

Seventy-four percent of Hungarians said immigrants are a burden on the welfare system and 65 percent said they pose a risk of crime.

Fully 64 percent of Hungarians said immigrants do not enrich their country’s cultural life.

According to the survey, 45 percent of Hungarians said migration was presented in the media in an objective way, whereas 37 percent said it was presented in overly negative colours.

The survey was conducted in 28 EU states between October 21 and 30 last year, and covered 28,080 respondents, including 1,038 people in Hungary.

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Source: MTI