The Impact of Religion and National Origin on Attitudes towards Refugee Rights: An International Comparative Empirical Study

This paper is concerned with the rights of refugees. The refugee issue has been an acutely charged item on the political agenda for several years. Although the great waves of influx have flattened out, people are continually venturing into Europe. Europe’s handling of refugees has been subject to st...

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Main Authors: Alexander Unser, Hans-Georg Ziebertz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-06-01
Series:Religions
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/6/303
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spelling doaj-06b8df36fc454250b0669126f86212962020-11-25T02:57:41ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442020-06-011130330310.3390/rel11060303The Impact of Religion and National Origin on Attitudes towards Refugee Rights: An International Comparative Empirical StudyAlexander Unser0Hans-Georg Ziebertz1Faculty for Human Sciences und Theology, TU Dortmund University, Emil-Figge-Str. 50, D-44227 Dortmund, GermanyInstitute for Practical Theology-Religious Education University of Würzburg, Bibrastr., 14-97070 Wuerzburg, GermanyThis paper is concerned with the rights of refugees. The refugee issue has been an acutely charged item on the political agenda for several years. Although the great waves of influx have flattened out, people are continually venturing into Europe. Europe’s handling of refugees has been subject to strong criticism, and the accusation that various actions contradict internationally agreed law is particularly serious. It remains a question of how to respond appropriately to the influx of people fearing for their lives. This paper examines empirically how young people from different denominations in Germany (n = 2022) and how Roman Catholics from 10 countries (n = 5363) evaluate refugee rights. It also investigates whether individual religiosity moderates the influence of denomination or national context. The results show that there are no significant differences between respondents from different denominations, but there are significant differences between respondents from different countries. However, religiosity was not found to moderate the influence of denomination or national context. These findings suggest that attitudes towards refugee rights depend more on the national context in which people live rather than on their religious affiliation or individual religiosity.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/6/303refugeeshuman rightsreligioncomparative empirical researchyouth
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Alexander Unser
Hans-Georg Ziebertz
spellingShingle Alexander Unser
Hans-Georg Ziebertz
The Impact of Religion and National Origin on Attitudes towards Refugee Rights: An International Comparative Empirical Study
Religions
refugees
human rights
religion
comparative empirical research
youth
author_facet Alexander Unser
Hans-Georg Ziebertz
author_sort Alexander Unser
title The Impact of Religion and National Origin on Attitudes towards Refugee Rights: An International Comparative Empirical Study
title_short The Impact of Religion and National Origin on Attitudes towards Refugee Rights: An International Comparative Empirical Study
title_full The Impact of Religion and National Origin on Attitudes towards Refugee Rights: An International Comparative Empirical Study
title_fullStr The Impact of Religion and National Origin on Attitudes towards Refugee Rights: An International Comparative Empirical Study
title_full_unstemmed The Impact of Religion and National Origin on Attitudes towards Refugee Rights: An International Comparative Empirical Study
title_sort impact of religion and national origin on attitudes towards refugee rights: an international comparative empirical study
publisher MDPI AG
series Religions
issn 2077-1444
publishDate 2020-06-01
description This paper is concerned with the rights of refugees. The refugee issue has been an acutely charged item on the political agenda for several years. Although the great waves of influx have flattened out, people are continually venturing into Europe. Europe’s handling of refugees has been subject to strong criticism, and the accusation that various actions contradict internationally agreed law is particularly serious. It remains a question of how to respond appropriately to the influx of people fearing for their lives. This paper examines empirically how young people from different denominations in Germany (n = 2022) and how Roman Catholics from 10 countries (n = 5363) evaluate refugee rights. It also investigates whether individual religiosity moderates the influence of denomination or national context. The results show that there are no significant differences between respondents from different denominations, but there are significant differences between respondents from different countries. However, religiosity was not found to moderate the influence of denomination or national context. These findings suggest that attitudes towards refugee rights depend more on the national context in which people live rather than on their religious affiliation or individual religiosity.
topic refugees
human rights
religion
comparative empirical research
youth
url https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/6/303
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