Yes this is the sad truth unfortunately a huge swathe of the general population support the 'tough on refugees' stance. It can get pretty ugly. About 5 years ago I was pretty heavily involved in refugee activism a friend and I were spat on in a shopping center for circulating a petition and was not uncommon to get verbally abused by people in the street. This was in a safe labor area too so it's not exactly like I was in some conservative heartland.