Attitudes Towards Foreign-born Settlers: Finland in a Comparative Perspective

The present paper focuses on the Finnish attitudinal climate towards foreign-born settlers, i.e. immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers in a comparative perspective. Two theoretical approaches are tested: 1) the socio-economic explanation in which prejudice is seen as an outcome of the original majority population fearing a decline of their socio-economic position, and 2) a culturally oriented explanation which refers to fears concerning the possible negative cultural effects of immigration. Using survey data from the ? rst round of the European Social Survey (ESS) on Finland and 18 other countries, we ? nd that at the most general level, Finns do hold comparatively negative attitudes towards increasing the number of immigrants in Finland. However, as we turn to more speci? c items on economic and especially cultural threat, we ? nd that Finns are as tolerant or even more tolerant than other Europeans. Multivariate analyses show that both socio-economic factors and values, ideologies and religiosity may generate prejudice. The two theoretical approaches should, thus, not be taken as alternatives but rather as complementary theories