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There are fewer and fewer skeptics of an immigrant as a son-in-law or neighbor.
Hardly any topic elicits greater participation in public debate than immigration, and if you add the word Muslim, it’s like throwing a hand grenade into the comment fields on Facebook.
But now there are new figures showing that most people take it very easy. Eighteen years ago, 40 percent responded that it would be uncomfortable to have an immigrant as a son-in-law, while now the figure is falling to 10 percent.
It’s hard to interpret it any other way that most people have low shoulders and they take that problem with a big yawn!
Norway has a population of immigrants, that is, immigrants and their children, which is close to one million people.
This number includes everything from a Swedish clerk to a Polish craftsman, a Pakistani labor immigrant who has been here for almost 50 years, and a refugee from Somalia.
Statistics Norway crosses the whole world through a hill and asks every year about the attitudes of Norwegians towards immigrants in general. The big picture is that most Norwegians become more positive towards immigrants over time. Among other things, 78 per cent fully or partially agree that most immigrants make a useful contribution to Norwegian working life.
But a positive or neutral attitude does not mean that Norwegians want a more liberal immigration policy. There is great support to keep it as restrictive as it is today. One in five will tighten it up, while one in five will let it go a bit. Overall, there is a clear majority that will not make it easier for refugees and asylum seekers to obtain residence in Norway, the survey shows.
The increasingly positive attitude towards immigrants occurs at the same time that more and more people deal with immigrants in everyday life, usually as colleagues or friends and neighbors.
This is also Statistics Norway’s conclusion: – As attitudes become more positive, we see that there is more extensive contact with immigrants. Most people who come into contact with immigrants claim that they mainly have positive experiences with this, the Statistics Norway researchers Frøydis Strøm and Christian Sørlien Molstad write in the abstract.
But can these numbers be trusted?
The survey was conducted by telephone with a national sample of 2,000 people. One downside is that the attrition rate is 41.2 percent, so there are many who do not have the opportunity or do not want to answer the interviewer’s questions. One theory may be that this is especially true of those who criticize immigration, because that opinion is less legitimate and belongs to the minority.
Researchers have tried to remedy dropouts by weighing results by gender, age and education, but there is no waterproof solution. Therefore, it is conceivable that critics of immigration will not respond, but the dropout rate this year is lower than in previous years.
Another objection is that the polarized debate often refers to a particular type of immigrant and not immigrants in general. The survey does not measure differences in the views of a working Swedish immigrant and more distant cultural groups.
The seas: Attitudes towards immigrants and immigration 2020
Also, a more positive attitude does not mean that there is not widespread skepticism. Among other things, 1/3 fully or partially agrees that the majority of immigrants abuse social welfare schemes (this suspicion is more frequent among older people and people with a lower educational level).
And 20 percent of the population has no contact with any immigrant. This is especially true for people over the age of 67, where 45 percent have no contact with any immigrants.
The skepticism of immigrants is greater the further they go into the country.
One main impression is that the immigrant vision follows the center / periphery dividing line drawn by the Center Party and Trygve Slagsvold Vedum.
- If you are younger with a higher education and you live in the city, you are mostly positive.
- If you are older, poorly educated, and live in the district, you are negative.
- The first group has its own (positive) experiences; the second has less of his own experiences, but is even more negative.
If we look at party backgrounds, SV and MDG voters are convinced that immigrants make a useful contribution, while a large majority of FRP voters believe that most immigrants abuse welfare plans.
Center Party voters have the least personal experience with immigrants.
In short, youth, higher education, and personal contact help provide a more positive view of immigrants. And, of course, immigrants themselves are generally more positive towards other immigrants than most Norwegians.
The bottom line must be that immigration largely takes place over time, if you look at it in general. But not everything is rosy. Other polls show much more negative attitudes toward special groups of immigrants and other minorities.
In 2017, the Center for Studies on the Holocaust and Religious Minorities (HL Center) examined attitudes towards Jews and Muslims in Norway. Although there are still negative attitudes towards Jews, it is more widespread among Muslims: – The results show that negative stereotypes about Muslims are widespread in Norwegian society. Overall, 34.1 percent of the population shows strong prejudice against Muslims, the bottom line is.
Between 30 and 40 percent believe that Muslims do not want to integrate, that they represent a threat to Norwegian culture and that they want to take over Europe. It should be added that although the figures are more negative for these groups, before it was worse, also in the surveys of the NS center.
– For both anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim attitudes, the prevalence is higher among men than women, among the elderly than among the young, and among people with low education than among people with high, he says.
P.S! What do you think is the reason why the majority of Norwegians are more positive towards immigrants? Is it because we are more used to immigration, or is it that the most negative do not dare or want to respond to opinion polls? Write your opinion as a reader’s letter!
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