Poor more likely to be racist claims new EU report

Social status has a strong influence on discriminatory and racist behaviour suggests a new report by the EU’s racism monitoring agency.

The Vienna based European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, found that those who finish their education prematurely, or have low incomes are more likely to display racist attitudes.

The report, released on Tuesday to coincide with EU action week against racism, analyses Eurobarometer and European Social Survey statistics from 2003.

The analysis suggests that the EU’s poorest citizens fell they are in direct competition with minority groups for scant resources such as jobs and social services.

And the findings shows that openness towards migrants and minorities is directly linked to levels of education; with racist and xenophobic attitudes decreasing the longer an individual spends in full-time education.

Europe’s younger people are more open to diversity say the authors, and urban populations, that are more likely to come into contact with minorities appear to be more supportive of multiculturalism that their rural counterparts.

"The results of the analysis show that the EU is becoming ever more diverse,” said European Monitoring Centre director, Beate Winkler.

“[But] the contradictory expression of attitudes demonstrates that we still have work to do to harness the positive elements of diversity to tackle the concerns that underline some of the views of the respondents,” said Winkler.

And the wealthier a member state is, the less likely racist behaviour will occur, with higher GDP countries showing the lowest levels of support for ethnic intolerance.

“The results underscore the need for the EU and its member states to continue to develop policy initiatives which promote intercultural understanding and community cohesion,” said Winkler.

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