Ogan study identifies factors that influence attitudes toward refugees
As refugees settle into European countries at all-time high rates, citizens’ varying perceptions of refugees are influenced by country-level factors, such as socioeconomic conditions and the number of refugees in the country, as well as individual factors, according to a study published by professor emerita Christine Ogan.
“Can ‘the Other’ ever become ‘One of Us’? Comparing Turkish and European attitudes toward refugees: A five-country study,” by David De Coninck of the University of Leuven (Belgium), Ogan and Leen D’Haenens of KU Leuven (Belgium), appears in the International Communication Gazette.
The researchers surveyed and interviewed more than 8,500 residents of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Turkey to assess their attitudes toward refugees and the factors that influenced them.
They found that residents of countries with positive socioeconomic conditions were more likely to have positive attitudes toward refugees. Residents of countries with high numbers of refugees were more likely to have negative attitudes.
At the individual level, attitudes are influenced by economic class, religiosity, religious piety and settlement conditionality, they found.