Special Eurobarometer 138: Racism and xenophobia in Europe

A special analysis of the Eurobarometer 2000 opinion poll on behalf of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.
By SORA, Vienna, Austria, www.sora.at
General recommendations and conclusions:
These recommendations are based on findings hinted at in the data-analysis which do not permit the development of a complete set of policy recommendations. Policy recommendations should be based on a knowledge of causal relationships and the strength of effects which is beyond the scope of this project. Thus, the recommendations are linked and clearly connected to the evidence within the data.
Political leadership:
A quarter of all Europeans can be categorised as ‘ambivalent’ – meaning that they harbour positive and negative attitudes towards minorities at the same time. Data show that party affiliation is a part of the causal system producing attitudes towards minorities. Ambivalent people should be considered those who react most political leadership – awareness of this fact can help politicians to make their decisions.
Unemployment:
Experience with unemployment and the expectation of higher unemployment rates lead to an increase in hostile attitudes towards minorities. Sinking unemployment rates and information about a decrease in unemployment might reduce concerns about migration and minorities.
Welfare:
Since a large part of xenophobic concerns is about loss of welfare standards, policies which lend large majorities the feeling that they can participate in the increase of wealth within a growing economy will contribute significantly to reducing xenophobic concerns. Demographic developments and their impact have to be considered and researched. Particular attention should be paid to the number of retired people and the increasing number of old people with lower income and with low expectations within that group. An increase in hostility towards minorities might well get stronger in this group.
Education:
Higher education clearly correlates with positive attitudes towards minorities. More research should be carried out to determine the nature of this effect and establish whether the increase of higher education – which is a stable trend – will result in a more tolerant attitude within Europe in the coming decades.
Personal relations:
Supporting personal relationships between people of different religions, nations or with different skin colour increases tolerance.
In the countries of Southern European, attitudes towards minorities seem to be influenced by other factors than in the rest of Europe. There is not enough evidence about causal relationships within this analysis to confirm that the conclusions mentioned above are meaningful for the southern part of Europe.

The results by volumes are distributed as follows:

• Volume A: Countries
• Volume AA: Groups of countries
• Volume A' (AP): Trends
• Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries
• Volume B: EU/socio-demographics
• Volume B' (BP) : Trends of EU/ socio-demographics
• Volume C: Country/socio-demographics

Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer