Youth attitudes towards immigrants based on the empirical research on the sample of final classes of high schools in Zadar

Namjera je ovoga rada ispitati stavove prema imigrantima budući da bi u budućnosti u Hrvatskoj moglo doći do sve veće potrebe za stranim radnicima i većim priljevom imigranata. S ciljem boljeg upoznavanja stavova prema imigrantima analiziraju se rezultati dobiveni empirijskim istraživanjem koje je provedeno na kvotnom uzorku učenika/ca završnih razreda srednjih škola u Zadru (N=372) i to pomoću anketnog upitnika. Na česticama pomoću kojih su se mjerili stavovi prema imigrantima napravljena je faktorska analiza te su dobivena tri faktora. Dva faktora su se koristila u daljnjim analizama. To su: društvena distanca i percepcija ekonomsko-kulturne prijetnje. U središnjem dijelu rada ispitivalo se povezanost dobivenih faktora sa socioekonomskim, sociodemografskim i sociokulturnim obilježjima učenika/ca kao i odnos dobivenih faktora s izraženim tradicionalnim vrijednostima koje su mjerene pomoću religijskog samoopredjeljenja, rodnog konzervativizma i nacionalnog ekskluzivizma. Zaključuje se da učenici/e u prosjeku imaju neutralne stavove prema imigrantima. Ipak, među njima postoje i oni/e koji/e pokazuju veću zatvorenost prema imigrantima. Percepcija imigranta kao ekonomsko–kulturne prijetnje najizraženija je kod učenika koji su uvjereni vjernici i prihvaćaju sve što njihova vjera uči, koji se opredjeljuju za desnu političku opciju te kod onih koji pokazuju visoko izraženi rodni konzervativizam i nacionalni ekskluzivizam. Jednako tako, ti su učenici/e uz one koji pohađaju trogodišnje strukovne škole izrazili i veću društvenu distancu prema imigrantima. Naposljetku se zaključuje da bi u kontekstu ovog istraživanja kulturna objašnjenja zatvorenosti prema imigrantima mogla imati veću ulogu nego li ekonomska.The purpose of this paper is to examine attitudes towards immigrants because, in the future there may be an increasing need for foreign workers and greater inflow of immigrants into Croatia. This paper is based on the results which are obtained by questionnaire in the empirical research conducted on quota sample of the final grade students of secondary schools in Zadar (N = 372). Using factor analysis three factors were obtained. Two factors were used in further analysis: social distance and perception of economic-cultural threat. In the central part of the paper we were searching for relationship of these factors with the socioeconomic, sociodemographic and sociocultural features of the students, as well as the relationship of these factors with the expressed traditional values measured by religious self-determination, gender conservatism and national exclusiveness. It is concluded that students have neutral attitudes toward immigrants. However, among them there are those who show greater hostility toward immigrants. The perception of immigrants as economic-cultural threat is most prevalent in students who are convinced believers and accept everything that their religion teaches, those who are for the right political option, and those who show highly expressed gender conservatism and national exclusiveness. Likewise, these students, along with those attending three-year vocational schools, also expressed greater social distances towards immigrants. Finally, it is concluded that, in the context of this research, cultural explanations of the negative attitudes toward immigrants could be more satisfying than economical