Illustrative stock photo (source: Sme)
This stems from a survey carried out by the Focus polling agency for the sociology department of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) between December 1 and 8 on 1,004 respondents, the TASR newswire reported.
Up to 76.1 percent of females and 64 percent of males stated that they are “very afraid” or “afraid enough” of the arrival of migrants.
“The biggest fears were expressed by respondents over 65, the least by people aged 18-24,” said sociologists Miroslav Bahna and Robert Klobucký, as quoted by TASR.
Close to two thirds of the respondents (63.9 percent) also think that refugees do not want to come to Slovakia. Only 7.1 percent of those asked are convinced that their target destination could be Slovakia upon arrival in Europe, Bahna and Klobucký added.
Almost half (49 percent) of the respondents want refugees to be helped only in unavoidable cases, while 19.4 percent do not think that any help at all should be provided.
“People that are less afraid about their arrival tend to lean towards helping the refugees, along with those who describe themselves as deeply religious,” the sociologists said, as quoted by TASR. “Conversely, the least willing to help are people from towns with over 50,000 inhabitants.”
The most important reasons for fearing refugees are increases in crime and in the danger of attacks by Muslim extremists, with around four out of ten respondents stating both these reasons. Fears concerning the failure to adapt and costs relating to accepting migrants were mentioned less often.
