Exclusion of Muslims in Eastern Europe and Western Europe. A Comparative Analysis of Anti-Muslim Attitudes in France, Norway, Poland and Czech Republic

Abstract

There are worrying signs of rising intolerance towards Muslim immigrants in the majority of European societies. We use data from the 2014/2015 wave of European Social Survey to analyse negative attitudes toward Muslim immigrants in France, Norway, Poland and the Czech Republic. Results of the analyses reveal that both levels and determinants of the anti-Muslim attitudes vary greatly. The levels are highest in Czech Republic and Poland, the two countries that have a very low Muslim population. Nevertheless, contact with immigrants reduces hostility toward Muslims also in these two countries. We find that theoretical approaches commonly used in studies of anti-immigrant attitudes are better suited to explain negative attitudes in Western European than in Eastern European countries. We argue that future research on hostility toward immigrants in Europe should focus more on Eastern European countries, as attitudes toward immigrants in several of these are worryingly negative.