Migrants and Slovakia: attitudes towards migrants in comparison with other countries
What is Slovaks´ attitude towards people who come to live and work in Slovakia? This question can be answered based on data from the 10th round of the European Social Survey (ESS). The collection of data took place in Slovakia from July to November 2021. 1369 Slovak men and women participated in the survey.
Residents of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia are among those who, in more than a third of cases, reject people of a different race or ethnic group in their country (Figure 1). Slovak respondents in ESS Round 9 (2018) rejected all people of a different race/ethnicity 35.2% of the time, while in ESS Round 10 (2021) this was 5% less (30.4%). A more tolerant approach is taken by residents of the countries Finland, France and Slovenia, where less than 10% of respondents indicated the option of "not allowing any" people of a different race/ethnicity to come to the country and live there.
The reason for this attitude can be found in attitudes towards the perceived consequences of migration. Slovak and Hungarian respondents consider immigration to be bad for the country's economy (Figure 2). The cultural life of the country is considered to be threatened by the arrival of people from other countries by Czech, Slovak and Hungarian residents. Finnish respondents, on the other hand, describe their arrival as enriching cultural life to a greater extent (see Chart 3). Moreover, among Slovak, Czech and Hungarian respondents who took part in ESS Round 10, the prevailing view is that immigrants make the country a worse place to live (Figure 4).
The European Social Survey is an international comparative social survey created in an academic setting and has been conducted every two years since 2001. The survey studies the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of the general population of more than thirty nations/countries. Among the main goals of the ESS is the monitoring of stability and changes in the social structure, the interpretation of the social, political and moral transformations of Europe. The survey provides substantiated indicators of development at the national level, based on the citizens' view of the key elements of society. Its goal is also to make data and their impact on social changes visible among academics, politicians and the general public. Since 2004, ESS has been coordinated in Slovakia by the Institute of Social Sciences of the Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences SAS.
The data available from the 10th round of the ESS were collected from the sample of 17, 940 respondents from 10 countries (Bulgaria – 2, 969, Czech Republic – 2, 467, Estonia – 1, 542, Finland – 1, 577, France – 1, 974, Croatia – 1, 546, Hungary – 1, 849, Lithuania – 1, 659, Slovenia – 1, 252, Slovakia – 1, 369).
The complete results of the 10th round of ESS are available for free HERE.
Text and figures by Miroslava Bozogáňová, SVU CSPV SAV, v. v. i.
Foto: pixabay.com/Ralphs Fotos