A Syrian refugee has her children vaccinated at the UNHCR refugee registration centre near Tripoli. Dominic Chavez/World Bank. Flickr. Some rights reserved.The ongoing refugee crisis in Europe can be best characterised by the unknowns; it is unclear how many asylum seekers will be coming to the EU over the coming years, what the proportion of economic migrants amongst the comers is or how much it costs to grant asylum.
Trying to comprehend quite distinctive reactions to migrants and refugees in the UK, Central and Eastern Europe, the Integrated Threat Theory (ITT) jumps to mind. It suggests that there are four main types of threats that can result in hostility. These include realistic threats, symbolic threats, intergroup anxiety (such as ridicule), and negative stereotyping (the fear of negative consequences resulting from the interaction with refugees).
Symbolic threats, stemming from perceived group differences in morals, values, and norms, are especially relevant to the current crisis, as most of the refugees are Muslims. This “out-group” holds a different worldview, which may be perceived as threatening to the European cultural identity and could thus subsequently interfere with political, business, and interpersonal relations at the intergroup level. This type of perceived threat is likely to be more prevailent in many less multicultural countries in Europe. Realistic threats, on the other hand, are likely to impact on attitudes in most countries in the EU, most manifestly in those defined by lower economic wellbeing.
