Levada Center on xenophobia in 2018

The Levada Center has published the results of its annual survey of xenophobic attitudes among Russians.

On August 27, 2018, the Levada Center published the results of its traditional nationwide survey of xenophobic attitudes among Russians. This year it took place on July 19-25 - sociologists conducted personal interviews with 1,600 people over 18 years old.

Comparing the current data with the results of last year, the researchers note that, in general, the level of xenophobia among Russians who consider themselves Russians has increased. Sociologists have registered an increase in this indicator for the first time in four years - from 2014 to 2017, the overall level of xenophobia, according to polls by the Levada Center, has been steadily falling. In addition, the range of minorities itself has expanded, to which the respondents are rather unfriendly.

The researchers believe that the growth of xenophobic sentiments is “the redirection of Russians’ irritation to the “Other”, caused by dissatisfaction with the pension reform and the deterioration of consumer and social sentiments”, that is, “defensive nationalism” .

One of the markers of this hostility is the desire to distance oneself from an ethnically or nationally different person (the authors of the study note that the analytical distinction between “ethnicity” and “nationality” is lost in the language of common sense, so in the questionnaire they used the well-established everyday designations of visible minorities: “immigrants from the Middle Asia", "Natives of Africa", etc.). The desire to maintain social distance is most pronounced in relation to the Roma (43% would prefer not to let them into Russia) and “immigrants from Africa” (33%), and least of all – to Jews (15%) and Ukrainians (22%) . And it is with Jews and Ukrainians that the respondents are most willing to reduce the social distance - 27% and 20% of the respondents, respectively, agreed to accept them into the family. These figures indicate that since 2010 (when respondents were asked the same question), the level of anti-Semitism has been gradually decreasing, and attitudes towards Ukrainians have been deteriorating.

Nevertheless, in comparison with the previous year, the attitude towards all the ethnic groups indicated above in the society has worsened. In particular, 4% of the sample were ready to limit the residence of Jews in Russia in 2017, and in this year - already 12%, that is, we cannot talk about positive dynamics from the point of view of the past year. The respondents are most hostile towards the Gypsies (32%), the Chinese (31%), the Vietnamese (26%) and “immigrants from the Central Asian republics of the USSR” (25%). Hostility towards the first three categories has approximately doubled over the past year. And the percentage of people who believe that no restrictions on residence should be introduced at all has not changed - 28%.

8% of the respondents were in favor of not letting all 7 groups proposed by sociologists into Russia at once: Jews, Chinese, “immigrants from Africa”, “immigrants from Central Asia”, Ukrainians, gypsies and Chechens. Among these 8%, many approve of discriminatory rental and employment advertisements and support the slogan "Russia for Russians" (60%). However, support for this slogan has increased in the sample as a whole (from 10% to 19%), mainly due to a decrease in the number of those who are neutral towards it (33% last year, 21% this year).

As for the traditional form of xenophobia in Russian society - migrantophobia - then, compared to last year, the number of people who are neutral about this topic has noticeably decreased. Both the share of opponents of migration (from 58% to 67%) and the share of its supporters (from 6% to 14%) increased. However, as these data show, public opinion as a whole is still rather isolationist and unfriendly towards labor immigration.

During the survey, the researchers also suggested that the respondents, after answering the question about the nature of ethnicity, take one of the two dominant positions in this discussion: either primordialist (connecting ethnicity with biology and heredity), or constructivist (insisting on the social nature of ethnic stereotypes and dividing the world into nations). ). Most of the respondents (71%) agreed that “ethnicity is transmitted to a person from parents at birth”, that is, they acted as conditional primordialists. The researchers noted that the representatives of this group, answering questions about the non-admission of certain ethnic groups to the territory of Russia, more often than conditional constructivists, advocated various restrictions and closing of borders. Constructivists, in turn, more often condemned discriminatory announcements and were more loyal to labor migrants.

However, xenophobic sentiments are expressed in both of these groups. “Ethnic isolationism and migrant phobia still dominate the attitudes of territorial openness and benevolence towards migration and can be updated in the political race for the sympathy of voters ,” the researchers note.   Sources

• Monitoring of xenophobic sentiments, July 2018 // Levada Center. 2018. August 27.