Whether asylum seekers are genuine refugees

Q. As far as you know, are most asylum seekers arriving by in Australia boat genuine refugees or are most of them not genuine refugees?

	Total		Vote Labor	Vote Lib/Nat	Vote Greens	Vote other		Jan 2014
Most of them are genuine refugees	32%		37%	26%	64%	27%		30%
Most of them are not genuine refugees	43%		40%	53%	16%	50%		47%
Don’t know	25%		22%	21%	20%	24%		23%

43% of respondents believe that most asylum seekers arriving by boat are not genuine refugees – 32% believe most are genuine refugees. This is a shift toward believing they are genuine since this question was asked in January last year.

Those more likely to think most are not genuine refugees were Liberal/National voters (53%) and aged 55+ (59%). Those more likely to think most are genuine refugees were Greens voters (64%), Labor voters (37%) and those with university education (42%).