Brussels, 21/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) in Vienna, has just published a new study entitled "European attitudes towards minorities". On the basis of this analysis undertaken by Eurobarometer, which is based on 16,078 interviews carried out in the EU Member States between 5 April and 23 May 2000, it can be found that: a) a growing number of European feel that immigrants increase the wealth of cultural life in their country; b) the attitude towards immigrants and minorities have developed in a positive direction in many Member States; c) a growing majority of Europeans have expressed their concern towards minorities as they fear that they form a threat to the peace and well being of society and are notably concerned over unemployment and the impact of the quality of education.
Even if the anti-discrimination initiatives are well received at the national and European level, there is an increasing trend in the EU to find scape goats, said Beate Winkler, Director if the Monitoring Centre, during a press conference in Brussels. People are scared of migratory flows, are scared of loosing their jobs and the benefits of social security, see children penalised in the schooling environment, in short loose their guarantee future, she noted. Another result of the investigation, is that 48% of European citizens accept to live in a multicultural environment and that 20% favour the assimilation of immigrants (while requiring that they renounce their religion and/or culture and to adapt to that of the host country). One can deduce that most European citizens do not yet feel that Europe is a multicultural and multiethnic Europe, noted Mrs Winkler.
The study divides the population into four categories: 1) the passive tolerant, who are not perturbed by the presence of different minority groups (39% of the population); 2) the ambivalent, who adopt a both positive and negative attitude towards minorities (25%); 3) the active tolerant, who are prepared to work for such groups (21%); the intolerant, who have a basically hostile attitude (14%). Mrs Winkler also noted that the behaviour of xenophobes is increasingly rare in those who are trained or with youths who have confronted at an early stage with young immigrants and who are thus very tolerant. For Mrs Winkler, anti-Semitism has regressed in Germany, and regresses when messages sent by society are clear and reject this phenomenon. Mrs Winkler heavily insisted over the importance of the education and awareness raising of the population, vocational training, teacher training, politicians, civil society and NGOs and the role of the media. It is necessary to incite people to be interested with what is different and teach then to be interested in cultural differences, as the future of Europe must be synonymous with pluralism and equality, concluded Beate Winkler.