THE sentiments that Europeans harbor for immigrants are not as bad as the rest of the world thinks and maybe not as bad as Europeans themselves think. A new Pew Research Center survey says a significant majority in several EU countries supports accepting more people, at least those fleeing violence.

That’s not the perception we have of many Europeans when it comes to immigration. For the last couple of years, the message coming out of Europe seems to have been hostile: Don’t think of coming here where you might get a job and a roof, and if you are here, stay behind fences. Best you go back where you came from and stay there.

However, those attitudes appear to have shifted significantly with the new survey, which was conducted this summer. The survey, conducted in 10 of the 28 EU member states, says a majority of people in several of them, including Germany and Holland and even entry point countries like Greece and Italy, support accepting refugees fleeing violence, thus belying a more sympathetic view of refugees. It’s how these governments handled the migration surge in 2015, when an estimated 1.3 million people sought asylum in Europe, which was strongly disapproved of by large majorities, especially the issue of a more equitable distribution of immigrants.

The findings show that European voters are not anti-immigration, but their governments are. The survey follows the election of far-right, anti-immigrant parties everywhere from Germany and Italy to Sweden. In Italy, the right-wing League is the junior party in the coalition government. In Germany, the Alternative for Germany Party entered parliament for the first time in 2017. In Austria, the Freedom Party is the junior coalition partner in government. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Front took her far-right party to the presidential runoff for only the second time in its history. Right-wing parties govern in Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia. They are influential in Denmark, Finland, and the Czech Republic.

In all these countries, EU leaders effectively killed the right to asylum in Europe. They capitulated to populist anti-immigration politicians who fanned the fears of locals. As far-right politicians reach positions of power in several countries, their influence is coming to bear, deliberately stoking a sense of crisis and panic to frame immigration as an existential threat to Europe.

Nationalist politicians have fanned concerns that the refugees, many of whom are Muslim, could bring crime and terror, fueling a populist backlash against establishment parties. This is almost certain to dominate the agenda at a meeting of EU leaders in Vienna. It may well determine the future direction of Europe. Will liberal leaders like Merkel and Macron take the lead or will conservatives and populists have their way?

Not all of Europe is fans of immigrants. The Pew survey says Hungary, which has emerged as the bastion of the anti-immigrant movement in Europe, was the only one of the 10 European countries surveyed where a majority opposed accepting refugees.

But in general, the survey showed Europeans are more welcoming of immigrants than popularly believed. Even in the US, where the administration is reducing the number of refugees it has previously accepted, 66 percent of respondents said they would support taking in refugees from countries where people are fleeing violence and war.

Judging from the survey, European hearts are soft for taking in immigrants fleeing wars and combat zones but they harden when they see no particular reason for an immigrant’s flight other than to seek a better life. That, to many Europeans, is a non-starter, not a good enough reason to leave where they came from and set up shop elsewhere.

But it appears that EU leaders — not the public — are the ones wanting to pull up the drawbridge. The people are not as bad as was thought.