Attitudes towards refugees and immigrants are toughening in the Netherlands, no matter what political parties people support, according to a survey by Ipsos I&O.

There is a “broad, shared desire to limit immigration to the Netherlands, from left to right”, the pollster said on Tuesday. “Improving accommodation for asylum seekers is supported by voters on the left, progressive side of the spectrum but other voters don’t or hardly care.”

In total, almost seven in 10 votes want the EU to do more to limit immigration, making it the big issue of the European elections, the results show.

Last autumn, 91% of GroenLinks-PvdA voters said the Netherlands had a moral obligation to take care of refugees, but that has now fallen to 83%. Just 38% of VVD voters agree with the statement, compared with 44% last year.

Although asylum is the main concern, there are also growing calls for limits to other forms of migration. Some 34% of those in the survey want a reduction in the number of people coming to the Netherlands to do low-skilled work, 32% want cuts in the number of foreign students and 26% in the number of visas for highly-skilled migrants.

Just one in five people think immigration generates more for the Dutch economy than it costs and almost one third think immigration costs the Netherlands money.

When those who want cuts in the number of foreign workers were asked about the likely impact, 73% said it would not matter if package and meal delivery services were hit, but only 40% would not mind if they had to work more hours to make up for the shortage of workers.

“In general, we see that if an explicit disadvantage is coupled to a reduction in work-related immigration, people are less likely to want labour migration reduced,” the researchers said.

The research was carried out in April and involved a representative sample of 2,200 people.

Clingendael

A second poll on attitudes to Europe, this time by the Clingendael research institute, found that just 15% of the Dutch back a Nexit and three quarters want to remain in the EU and to use the euro currency.

At the same time, however, just 12% say they feel the EU is there to support them.

Dissatisfaction with the EU’s approach to dealing with migration, agriculture and the war between Israel and Hamas top respondents’ list of concerns.