Young people’s attitudes towards the human rights of immigrants and refugees: An interview study

Abstract

Research on young people’s civic awareness and engagement has been expanding from a primary focus on their political views (Kubow, Grossman, & Ninomiya, 2000) to an emphasis on their views on various societal issues, such as their attitudes towards different social and cultural groups, including immigrants (e.g. Torney-Purta, Lehmann, Oswald, & Schulz, 2001). Most of the research on young people’s attitudes towards immigrants has been conducted with questionnaires (e.g. Kerr, Sturman, Schulz, & Burge, 2010). This qualitative study, conducted in Iceland, is part of a larger research project on „Young people’s civic engagement in a democratic society“ which uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to collect and analyze data. The study presented here focuses on two issues: young people’s attitudes towards the rights of immigrants and their reception of refugees by using semi-structured in-depth interviews. Nineteen young people in two age groups, 15 and 19 years old, participated in the study. Thematic analysis was used to explore their views. The main results of the thematic analysis suggest two main themes for the issue of attitudes towards the rights of immigrants: “opportunities” and “we and the other” (othering). First, for the theme “opportunities”, three subthemes emerged. The first was the importance of language. These young people felt that learning Icelandic was key to immigrants participating in the society, but they also saw the difficulty that immigrants could face in learning it; thus inadequate competence in Icelandic could present obstacles, for example in getting a job. They also thought this could inhibit immigrants from getting to know people, making friends, and communicating in general. The second theme was equal rights: immigrants should be able to enjoy the same rights as other citizens, such as having a voice about social issues through the right to vote and to maintain their identity related to their cultural origins. The third theme was prejudice: the young people felt that prejudices towards immigrants could keep them from participating in society. Second, the main theme of ”we and the other” consists of two subthemes. The thematic analysis revealed that five of the young people made a clearer distinction between “us” and “them” in their discussion about immigrants. In other words, they “othered” immigrants. The analysis indicated that their views about immigrants reflected to some extent two subthemes: ideas about an Icelandic cultural identity and their fear of changes in Icelandic culture, religion, and society. For the remaining issue, i.e. attitudes towards the reception of refugees, the thematic analysis revealed three main themes. The first was “human rights”: here, the young people felt that refugees should enjoy the same human rights as other people, and that they should be able to feel secure, given our common human need for safety and shelter. The second theme was “limiting the numbers of refugees” and using a background check to avoid allowing just “anyone” to enter Iceland as a refugee. The third theme was an emphasis on “morality and helping” others, including the moral responsibility and duty to help refugees who need assistance. The study’s main limitation is that the young people could have been asked about their views of the refugees’ rights in greater depth. Also, the interview method may be limited, as some of these young people might have found it difficult to express and describe their ideas and experiences. The study has at least two key strengths: First, by using in-depth interviews, which focus on young people’s views of the rights of immigrants and the reception of refugees, we can get a more holistic picture and a deeper understanding of their thinking about the rights of minority groups. Second, few studies have used in-depth interviews to understand young people’s attitudes to immigrants. Given these strengths, the study should make an important contribution to this field of study, on both national and international levels. We do hope that our findings can be of use to researchers in this field, to those who work in human rights education, and to those who raise and educate children and young people of different backgrounds in situations that aim to cultivate their social, ethical, and civic growth.