Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, 310 Reynolds Building, St. Dunstan's Road, London, W6 8RP, UK.
Global Health. 2018 Jun 28;14(1):61. doi: 10.1186/s12992-018-0378-1.
Development assistance from governments of high income countries represents the vast majority of international funding for global health. Recent stagnation of this important source of funding may affect attainment of major global health goals. The financial crisis is widely accredited as denting governments' outlay for development aid, as well as citizen's support for aid. Europe has also recently experienced record levels of migration; the so called 'European migration crisis'. This study aims to analyse trends in public attitudes towards development aid in European Union (EU) countries, in the context of the European migrant crisis.
Eurobarometer survey data from 2011 (prior to the migrant crisis) and 2015 (at the peak of the crisis) was analysed for 27 EU countries. The outcome variables related to people's levels of support to three statements around the importance of supporting people in developing countries, increasing countries' commitments to aid and willingness to pay extra for products from developing countries. EU Member States were categorised as 'arrival' or 'destination' countries in view of migration routes and numbers of asylum applications per 100,000 population, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed, adjusting for countries' economic status (gross domestic product per capita).
In general, support for development aid has increased from 2011 to 2015, but was largely unaffected by migration status when applying the regression model. In 2015, the belief that development assistance is 'very important' was significantly higher in countries where migrants first arrived compared to other EU Member States, with a trend towards this association also apparent in 2011.
The positive trends in public support for development aid are encouraging in an age where economic hardships at home, as well as the tone of national political discourses and rising right wing populism appear to suggest otherwise.
高收入国家政府的发展援助是全球卫生国际资金的主要来源。这一重要资金来源的最近停滞可能会影响到主要全球卫生目标的实现。金融危机被广泛认为削弱了政府用于发展援助的支出，以及公民对援助的支持。欧洲最近也经历了创纪录水平的移民；所谓的“欧洲移民危机”。本研究旨在分析欧洲联盟（欧盟）国家在欧洲移民危机背景下公众对发展援助态度的趋势。
分析了 2011 年（移民危机前）和 2015 年（危机高峰期）的 27 个欧盟国家的 Eurobarometer 调查数据。因支持发展中国家人民、增加国家对援助的承诺和愿意为发展中国家产品支付额外费用的重要性的三个陈述，将结果变量与人们的支持水平相关联。根据移民路线和每 10 万人口的庇护申请数量，欧盟成员国被归类为“抵达”或“目的地”国家。采用多元线性回归分析，调整了国家的经济地位（人均国内生产总值）。
总的来说，从 2011 年到 2015 年，对发展援助的支持有所增加，但在应用回归模型时，移民状况的影响不大。2015 年，与其他欧盟成员国相比，移民首先抵达的国家认为发展援助“非常重要”的信念显著提高，这种关联在 2011 年也有明显趋势。
在国内经济困难、国家政治话语的基调以及右翼民粹主义抬头的时代，公众对发展援助的支持呈积极趋势，令人鼓舞。
