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Austria Attitudes Toward Minorities
Although Austria had a negligible Jewish population by the
early 1990s, anti-Semitism remains a prejudice among some
segments of the population. Social scientists disagree about the
reliability of surveys taken during the 1980s, but the consensus
among specialists is that between 7 and 12 percent of the
population of Austria holds consistently anti-Semitic attitudes
and can be considered "hard-core" anti-Semites. Around 25 percent
of the populace is mildly anti-Semitic, and approximately 60
percent is neutral or philo-Semitic. Surveys also reveal that
anti-Semitic sentiments are more pronounced among older Austrians
than younger ones, increase as one moves from the left to the
right of the political spectrum, and tend to be more pronounced
in rural areas.
Surveys also reveal that there was a decline of explicitly
anti-Semitic sentiments among some sections of the Austrian
population during the 1980s. The decline could derive from the
worldwide controversy surrounding the nomination and election of
Kurt Waldheim as Austrian president in 1986 and the public
discussions of the fiftieth anniversary of the Nazi Anschluss in
1988. Both events caused a critical reevaluation of the role of
Austrians in the Third Reich, as well as an open debate about
Austrian anti-Semitism.
The opening of Eastern Europe beginning in 1989 and increased
immigration to Austria were events that also influenced the
structure of Austrian attitudes, anxieties, and prejudices. The
special status Austria enjoyed as a neutral state between the two
power blocs gave Austrians a sense of security that disappeared
after 1989. It was replaced by the widespread concern in the
early 1990s that Austria would be overwhelmed by foreigners as a
result of open borders. For example, a survey in 1992 found that
38 percent of those polled believed that the greatest threat
facing Austria was its being overrun by eastern refugees. The
weakest social groups in Austria, the elderly and the retired,
and low-income groups--who had the impression that they were
competing with foreign workers--tended to feel most threatened by
the changes that accompanied Austria's new position in Europe.
The role of immigration became a very sensitive political
issue because of the erroneous but common perception that legal
immigrants and foreign workers are a burden instead of a
demographic and economic benefit. The influx of illegal or
"economic refugees" from the former communist states of Eastern
Europe exacerbated the situation. An increase in crime stemming
from illegal refugees who entered Austria as "tourists" led to
increasingly hostile attitudes toward all foreigners from Eastern
Europe, the Balkan Peninsula, and Turkey and the propagation of
negative stereotypes. The results of a Gallup poll taken in the
fall of 1991 showed strong xenophobic sentiments toward Gypsies,
Serbs, Turks, Poles, and Romanians that considerably surpassed
anti-Semitic attitudes in Austria. The manner in which Austrians
learn to cope with immigration and integration will likely play
an important role in domestic politics in the future.
Data as of December 1993
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