March 24, 2005
Written by C.N.
Xenophobia Rising in Europe
Many of us may have an idealized image of European society — very open, tolerant, and multiethnic/multicultural. However, a new survey apparently finds that increasing numbers of Europeans are growing intolerant of immigrants, as reported by Reuters through Yahoo News:
The study, based on pan-EU opinion surveys between 1997 and 2003, found a significant increase in support for the view that there were limits to a so-called multicultural society. . . The center’s analysis of the data found:
60 percent in the former EU of 15 states and 42 percent in the 10 mainly east European states that joined the EU last year believed there were “limits to multicultural society.” Nearly 40 percent across the EU opposed granting legal immigrants full civil rights.
Fifty percent expressed “resistance to immigrants” and 58 percent saw a “collective ethnic threat” from immigration, meaning they answered yes to questions including whether immigrants threaten jobs and a country’s culture, add to crime problems and make a country a worse place to live.
Pretty surprising and unsettling results. It makes me wonder — if so many Europeans, who are supposedly known for being more open-minded than Americans, can have these blatantly xenophobic and nativist sentiments, what kind of example and message are they sending to us across the pond, where there are plenty of examples, historical and contemporary, of anti-immigrant ideology already in existence?
Author Citation
Copyright © 2001- by C.N. Le. Some rights reserved. 
Suggested reference: Le, C.N. . "Xenophobia Rising in Europe" Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America. <https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/2005/03/xenophobia-rising-in-europe/> ().
Short URL: https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/?p=61
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