Weerstand in Europa tegen multiculturele samenleving groeit (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Greeks, Estonians and Latvians are the most resistant to a multicultural society, while a growing number of EU citizens think that a multicultural society has reached its limits, according to a new survey.

The survey, included in a report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia published on Tuesday (15 March), examined the attitudes towards minorities, asylum seekers and immigrants, as expressed across Europe in 2003.

Almost 80 per cent of its respondents had no problem interacting with minorities, but almost half of them had a critical attitude towards cultural and religious diversity.

Half of EU citizens revealed their negative attitude to immigrants - mainly in Greece, Hungary and Austria; and about a third of them said they were opposed to asylum seekers, with Belgium, the UK and Hungary on top of the list.

While about 60 per cent of the "old" member states thought that multiculturalism had certain limits, this view was less explicit (42 per cent) in the ten countries that joined the EU in 2004.

The support for repatriation policies for legal migrants has risen significantly since 1997, with the highest rate in Malta, East Germany, Greece and Latvia.

The report suggested that richer countries showed more tolerance and respect to cultural and religious diversities.

The opinions also differed at various societal levels - with young people and citizens with better income and education expressing more open and supportive attitudes towards ethnic, cultural and religious differences.