Some countries are more welcoming than others. This study asked people how friendly is their country. I wonder if this study might be a bit skewed in that some countries might have a false self-perception. But interesting all the same.
http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-03-27/most-welcoming-and-least-welcoming-countries-around-world
I don´t regard this list as accurate, for example, in the top country Morocco, foreigners are constantly harassed to buy something, and the harassment of women is commonplace, as well countries such South Africa and Brazil are tremendously dangerous places for foreigners, but this list still somehow ranks them as welcoming countries, while a lot of countries which have no such problems are ranked as not welcoming, so I would recommend against anyone using this map when deciding where to move to or where to visit as a tourist.
This was what I was thinking. The list is made up of ‘self assessments’. So Brazilians and Canadians seem to think they are more open and welcoming, but my experience has been quite the opposite. But even if it is inaccurate, it does reflect the perceptions of the people in those countries.
I am not sure even about the self-perception part being correct for most countries, because I find it very hard to believe that a professional survey was done in all 200+ countries in the World on large samples, for example the common people in Iran take pride in their hospitality towards foreigners, so I very much doubt that they would give themselves such a low “self-assessment” score, so I think that whoever made this map either has a political agenda or did an unprofessional survey. Another thing to consider is that how you are treated/welcomed also depends on where you are from, for example I am a Slav from Croatia, so I would receive a warm welcome in Russia, while somebody from Somalia or Uzbekistan would not.
As for my experiences in my travels (I have been to 16 countries so far), the Germans (Baden-Württemberg) and the Israelis (Tel Aviv) were the most welcoming, while the Lebanese were by far the least welcoming.