Attitudes towards „Foreigners“ in Vienna and Western German Cities – A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

This paper compares attitudes towards foreigners in Western German cities and in Vienna. The data basis for Germany was ALLBUS 1996. For Vienna, the results of a survey conducted in 1998 provided the foundation for a comparative analysis.
Discriminatory attitudes in Vienna and in German cities differ in their respective fashioning. The Austrians are somewhat more xenophobic on a subtle level. As intrusion into the private sphere increases, the gap between the Viennese and the German sample becomes smaller. An intrusion in for example the selection of marital partners is rejected in Vienna to a greater extent than in German cities.
Age and formal education are of essential importance for explaining sentiments of a discriminatory kind in both national contexts. The correlation between age and xenophobic attitudes is closer in Austria, whereas formal education is of greater importance in the German case. Xenophobia seems to be a widespread phenomenon among the less-educated strata of German society. From medium-level education upward the national pattern turns around. The attainment of higher-level school education or a university degree constitutes a less reliable preventive against xenophobia in Vienna than in German cities. Concerning the effects of socio-psychological determinants, anomia, deprivation, and postmaterialist orientations are more important in Germany, authoritarianism and patriotism in Vienna.