The Acceptance of Different Types of Migrants to Slovakia Based on Gender

Abstract

"Schahbasi, Huber and Fieder (2020) found that men are generally more sceptical toward migration than women. The goal of this paper is to analyse the acceptance of different types of migrants to Slovakia based on gender. An experimental vignette methodology (EVM) with a simple experimental design was used - the reason for coming to Slovakia was manipulated. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of three different vignettes. The research sample consisted of 1001 respondents (49% men) aged 17 to 75 years (M = 44.81; SD = 14.92). Each vignette describes a different type of migrant according to the reasons for coming to Slovakia, while the word ""migrant"" was omitted to avoid prejudice. Control group (general description of people coming to Slovakia) - 334 respondents (51.2% men), group 1 (people coming for work / study) - 335 respondents (47.5% men); and group 2 (people arriving for a threat in their home country) - 332 respondents (48.2% men). The data were collected online (panel collection) in the Slovak Republic with the ambition to obtain a representative sample. Respondents were asked if they would accept a person coming to Slovakia from another country for ... a close relative acquired by marriage, a close personal friend, a neighbour living on the same street, co-worker / colleague, citizen of the SR and visitor of the SR, where 1 = strongly agree – 5 = strongly disagree. The comparison of respondents using t-test for independent samples showed that there were significant differences between men and women in control group - women had more acceptance for coming people as a close personal friend (Cohen's d = 0.251) and less for co-worker / colleague (Cohen's d = 0.224) than men. Women from group 1 had also more acceptance in terms of co-worker / colleague (Cohen's d = 0.331) and the visitor of the SR (Cohen's d = 0.276) than men. There were no differences in group 2. For the interpretation of the results, it is necessary to look at the negligible size of the differences between men and women. Respondents were in the “accepting” part of the scale (M = 2.31; SD = 0.82). The results suggest that there are almost none differences in the acceptance of migrants between men and women, regardless of vignette they evaluated in Slovakia. Based on our data is seems, that gender is not the main factor of acceptance rate of different types of migrants."