The Centre for Peace Studies (CMS) in Zagreb published a new study, Attitudes towards foreigners and minorities in Croatian society in 2024: threat, encounter, coexistence?, written by Drago Župarić-Iljić and Sara Lalić. 

CMS has been working for over 2 decades to protect and promote the rights of refugees and other foreigners and minority groups in Croatia. It periodically conducts research as a basis for public policy proposals and public communications. This particular study is the result of efforts to provide key stakeholders and other interested parties with insights into public opinion on these important social issues, and to better understand related social phenomena.

The research for this study was conducted by research and consulting agency Ipsos, among a representative sample of 978 people across the country. It was developed as part of the "FRED - Fostering Racial Equality and Diversity" project and funded through the European Commission's Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values ​​(CERV) programme. Respondents were asked questions on what they think about the migration of refugees and workers to Croatia and their reception, and what national policies towards them should be like. Areas of focus included how respondents see the position of certain minorities in Croatia, and whether this perception has changed in the last 10 years; what can be done to promote a society that is less intolerant and more inclusive of foreigners and minority groups; views on the state of social contact with and distance from foreigners and minority groups; necessary strategies for ethnic and cultural adaptation and how migrant integration process(es) can contribute to this.

The 132-page study covers 10 dimensions crucial for understanding attitudes towards foreigners and minority groups:

• The importance of national and religious self-identification
• Consequences of immigration and the perception of threat
• Attitudes towards different categories of foreigners with regard to motives for arrival
• Attitudes towards certain nations, racialised groups and minorities
• Attitudes on the treatment of different categories of foreigners
• Attitudes on the access of foreign immigrants to certain rights
• Attitudes on the economic impact of immigrants and interactions with foreign workers
• Attitudes towards Roma people
• Attitudes on cultural diversity and adaptation
• Attitudes on the integration and culture of foreigners in Croatia