Saturday, June 19, 2010

Immigrants and Anti-Semitism

World Values Survey participants were asked if they would like to have a Jew for a neighbor. Here are the percentages saying no listed by country:


Percent not wanting a Jewish neighbor

Iraq 83.4
Turkey 61.9
India 52.5
South Korea 40.9
Nigeria 35.3
Japan 28.1
Bosnia and Herzegovina 28.0
Slovenia 27.5
Venezuela 26.0
Mexico 25.9
Romania 25.6
Moldova 25.0
South Africa 24.4
Bulgaria 24.2
Uganda 22.2
Poland 21.6
Lithuania 20.4
Kyrgyzstan 20.4
Bangladesh 20.4
Macedonia 20.0
Slovakia 19.9
Zimbabwe 19.3
Greece 18.7
Croatia 18.2
Malta 17.3
Albania 17.0
Egypt 16.5

World 16.4

Portugal 15.4
Spain 14.3
Belgium 13.0
Italy 12.9
Chile 12.8
Estonia 12.0
Russia 11.2
Northern Ireland 10.5
Ukraine 10.4
Uruguay 10.4
Czech Republic 10.4
Hungary 10.3
Austria 9.7
Belarus 9.5
Norway 8.9
Ireland 8.8
Luxembourg 8.3
German 7.3
Finland 7.2
Great Britain 6.8
Latvia 6.8
USA 6.6
Argentina 6.4
Iceland 5.5
Canada 4.6
Sweden 3.9
Denmark 2.8
Netherlands 2.6


Muslims, Asians (including Indians), and Mexicans are toward the top of the list. Asians and Mexicans are currently the largest immigrant groups. So why do 91 percent of American Jews think that immigrants improve the country by bringing new ideas and culture?  Is the belief that Jews make bad neighbors one of those fresh, new ideas?  Now I don't know if immigrants carry the same attitudes as the average person from the sending country, but I don't see why they wouldn't. By the way, the Chinese were not asked the Jewish neighbor question, but in another analysis, I showed that Chinese immigrants have an above-average anti-Israel attitude. (Mexican immigrants had the worst score.)    

5 comments:

  1. I applied the Bloggs test and determined the Chinese must be philosemitic.

    Besides, out here in the real world, Chinese look for Jewish neighborhoods to move into.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The good news is in most of Europe and in the USA, the vast majority are ok with Jews as neighbors. Also, good for Canada, which is quietly becoming more pro-Israel than the US, at least in its leadership.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The thing I find fascinating (albeit not really surprising since I've known it for such a long time) is that Jews usually cast their movies so that the "bad guy" is phenotypically more northern European than is the "good guy". Equally frequently, the "good guy" gets the female most phenotypically similar to the "bad guy".

    The lack of reciprocation may be what "Christianity" is all about.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous3:35 PM

    "Spain, Portugal, and England all expelled their Jewish populations hundreds of years ago -- pretty anti-Semitic, it seems. (France did too, but I don't see them on the list.)"

    Jews were informally allowed to settle in England during the 1650's by Oliver Cromwell, which is quite a long time ago. Moreover, the Jewish population in England has been numerically significant since mass emigration from Eastern Europe in the late 19th / early 20th century, i.e. roughly a century.

    French Jews were expelled only from the areas under most direct control by the king, but some persisted in what is now southern France throughout the medieval period because it was officially under other rule (papal rule during the Great Expulsion of 1306). The major French expulsion of the Jews by Philip the Fair in 1306 was a transparent money-grab by the same king who shortly thereafter went after the Knights Templar for the same reason and had the Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, tortured into confessing conveniently invented crimes and then burned at the stake. As with England, France has had one of the world's larger Jewish populations since the late 19th / early 20th century emigration from Eastern Europe. It was further significantly augmented by emigration of Jews from the former French colonies in North Africa.

    ReplyDelete

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