Towards Refugees and Asylum-Seekers: A Post Festum of the so Called Refugee Crisis

Abstract

The paper presents attitudes and opinions of Croatian social network users (Twitter and Facebook) towards refugees and the so-called refugee crisis, which globally escalated in recent years. Croatia was, for the first time since the early 1990s, directly influenced by the refugee problem, migrations as well as with all the challenges that follow it. Since September 16th 2015 until May 3rd 2016 Croatia saw 658 068 refugees transiting it to reach the Western countries. During that time the public was under influence of diverging attitudes and interpretations of what repercussions that transit would entail. These attitudes are relevant for the current situation connected with the so-called refugee crisis in the context of its influence on the multidimensional integration and the support of the Croatian society towards refugees. This paper analyzed attitudes toward refugees, focusing especially on the link of attitudes shown and socio-demographic characteristics. We focused on their national identity, frequency of contact with refugees, willingness to help and political positions. The research was undertaken through an online questionnaire. The relevant variables were gauged through three main factors – feeling of danger, equal treatment, and social distance. The results show that our sample has dominantly positive attitudes towards refugees despite a lack of contact. They show low perception of the feeling of danger and believe that there should be equal opportunities for all individuals living in or coming to Croatia. We obtained interesting correlations concerning national identity and the willingness to help. This paper focused on the attitudes of citizens in the contemporary Croatian context. It is relevant concerning potential influence that citizens’ attitudes (together with prejudices exposed) have on the success of the integration process of those individuals that decided to continue their lives in Croatia.