Original scientific paper
Dimensions of Stereotypes and Prejudices in Relation to Displacees and Refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina
Nenad Bulat
; Research Agency "Puls", Split, Croatia
Abstract
The paper analyses the latent and manifest attitudes of the domiciled population to displaced persons and refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina. The mechanisms for forming stereotypes and prejudices are examined in the framework of a competitive-conflictual model and in four dimensions: social distance, realistic group conflict, measures of (un)equal treatment, symbolic racism. The author also examines the connection between cultural compatibility (perception of sociocultural diversity) and socio-political orientations of society, i.e. of the dominant public opinion in regard to forced migrants. On the basis of questionnaire results taken from a representative sample among Croatian citizens (N=1575) and received during the critical phase in the refugee crisis (1994), three factors, i.e. latent attitude dimension, were derived: being threatened, (non-)tolerance towards refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina and tolerance, whose structure is to a significant degree determined by the socio-demographic traits of the respondents (first of all by their social status) and by situational variables (contacts and the number of desplacees and refugees in the milieu). The same applies also to the degree of social distance which is especially high in regard to Muslim refugees, but also in regard to Croatian refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Tests of the connection by means of non-parametric tests indicate a crucial influence of the perception of socio-cultural differences on the degree of social distance towards individual groups of forced migrants.
Keywords
displaced persons; refugees; social distance; cultural compatibility; stereotypes; prejudices
Hrčak ID:
126955
URI
Publication date:
30.6.1995.
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