Social distance as an element of the attitude to foreigners in a local community exemplified by Bialystok residents

The inspiration to write this article were studies on the attitudes of tolerance among the inhabitants of Bialystok, completed in August 2013 as a result of the events that took place in the capital of Podlaskie province during the past years. The severity of the acts of intolerance and high media impact of these acts very negatively affected the image of the city. To counter the intolerant vices, the city commissioned a quantitative study measuring the attitudes of Bialystok citizens towards foreigners. The result of studies was social diagnosis that describes the level of intolerance of Bialystok inhabitants. In this paper the authors present selected results, focusing in particular on the scale used to measure social distances, which is called Bogardus scale and related indicators probe indigenous attitude towards foreigners. The authors present current and accurate data on the distances to the surveyed social and ethnic groups, and compare them to the corresponding studies from Poland.Katarzyna Sztop-Rutkowska - sztop.rutkowska@gmail.comŁukasz Kiszkiel - lukaszkiszkiel@gmail.comr.mejsak@gmail.comKatarzyna Sztop-Rutkowska - Uniwersytet w BiałymstokuŁukasz Kiszkiel - Uniwersytet w BiałymstokuRafał Mejsak - Uniwersytet w Białymstok