November 29, 2024 - 11:20am
Half of Austria’s overall population (50%) is in favour of “comprehensive remigration”, according to a new survey from the Archives of the Austrian Resistance (AAR) which also found that some 36% of people in the country do not want to live beside Muslims.
The online polling by Marketagent of 2,198 Austrians between April and May this year measured the country’s attitudes towards ethnic minorities and democracy. This was the first “Right-wing extremism barometer” commissioned by the AAR, a museum in Vienna founded by resistance fighters after the Second World War which documents the history of Nazism and Right-wing extremism. It found that around 10% of those surveyed had views they categorise as extremist. While AAR director Andreas Kranebitter said the findings do not give cause for national alarm, he conceded they were concerning.
The survey assessed respondents’ political leanings based on whether they agreed with statements such as “Our people are naturally superior to other peoples” or “I want a strong man at the head of this country who does not have to worry about a parliament”.
| Which of these groups of people would Austrians not like to have as neighbours? |
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Around 29% of those classified as having “pronounced Right-wing extremist views” believe that equality in Austria has gone too far. Almost half of this group also conceive of Austria as “part of a German ethnic and cultural community”.
When it comes to the general population’s attitudes towards ethnic minorities, 38% said they do not want to live next to Roma or Sinti people, 36% beside Muslims, and 10% next to Jews, while 29% also think that Muslims should be banned from immigrating to the country. Separately, 16 % of the general population said they do not want to live next door to transgender people.
This survey comes after last week’s victory for Austria's Freedom Party (FPO) in state elections in the region of Styria. It is only the second state Herbert Kickl’s party has ever won in. Despite coming first in September’s general elections with 29% of the vote, the FPO has been excluded from current coalition talks to form a government. Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen asked the leader of the conservative People’s Party (OVP) and incumbent Chancellor Karl Nehammer to form a coalition.
The survey also suggests a significant amount of antisemitism is linked to Israel’s war in Gaza. Some 42% of the general population, and 60% of those with extremist views, agreed that Israel's policy in Palestine is like that of the Nazis during the Second World War.
During the election, Kickl played into fears over increased immigration, calling for the suspension of the right to asylum in order to create “Fortress Austria”. He has also used the term Volkskanzler (people's chancellor), a phrase once used by the Nazis to refer to Adolf Hitler, while his rhetoric has been aided by a stagnant economy and high inflation.
Nehammer is still refusing to work with Kickl and the FPO. “It's impossible to form a government with someone who adores conspiracy theories,” he told the media in September. “[Someone] who describes the WHO, the World Health Organisation, as the next world government and the economic forum in Davos as preparation for global domination.”
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SubscribeInteresting survey results. It’s encouraging because the vast majority of people have no issue living beside gay people or people of colour. It appears they don’t want live next door to people with extreme ideologies.
Of the 10% who don’t want to live beside Jews, I very much doubt these are people the author considers far right. They are almost certainly far left.
If the 10% are a Muslim would you consider them far right or far left?
Good point. No idea.
Islam doesn’t map onto the European Left-Right spectrum.
Islamofascists.
Will I ever again read an UnHerd article that does not include the vacuous “far right” tag?
Any mention of Nazism in relation to this survey is just nonsense.
Not surrendering your country and your cultural values to large numbers of assimilation-resistant newcomers who are then encouraged in their refusal to assimilate by your own out-of-touch Woke leaders is not an extremist position.
There is a distinction between integration and assimilation. Assimilation implies the discarding of all distinctive cultural attributes, whereas integration implies the acceptance of those parts of majority culture that belong in the public sphere and are part of the social contract.
In a free society nobody should be obliged to assimilate, but all should observe the nation’s laws both in letter and in spirit.
Alas your ‘free society’ will see the end of Western liberal democracy.
We either wake up and ‘grow a pair’ quickly or accept we will need to submit to Islam soon as it is a very powerful ideology that is using our weak, naive political systems until it has enough critical mass. Once it does, it’ll be far too late.
I agree. It seems entirely logical
A few comments on this from this forum’s resident Austrian:
The word “remigration” has got a bad reputation since it was (allegedly) used by the right wing nasty Martin Sellner at a meeting in Potsdam to refer to the repatriation of migrants, including those who have dual nationality. Quite what was said at that meeting is still unclear but the general hysteria over it has served to make the word “remigration” a flashpoint in the heated and not very constructive discussion over migration in Austria which has actually helped to make the FPÖ so strong.
This freak-out over a single word is in my opinion quite daft. We now have the situation where the word “remigration” is kind of off limits or seen as “far-right” while much harsher words like “Abschiebung” (deportation) and “Ausweisung” (being ordered to leave the country) are used quite routinely.
I quite happily use the word “remigration” to refer to the removal/ordering to leave of a large group of people who do not have/no longer have the right to be here. In other words, executing existing laws. And I suspect the people who answered this survey understand “remigration” in a similar way to me and have no truck with all the overwrought fuss over it.
With regard to people not wanting to live next door to a Muslim: this question is also misleading. If you asked most people whether they’d be bothered living next to a Bosnian Muslim, almost no one would mind. I think the issue is whether they want to live next door to people from drastically different cultures (who also happen to be Muslim).
As I mention frequently, I live in an area with a big Turkish population. A lot of those people are quite conservative in their outlook and not very well integrated. I like living in the area but there are certain habits of theirs that annoy me and I would not like to have in my house. For example, the Turkish tendency to stay up late at night in summer and be out on the street/in the common parts of the house making noise until late. Austrians, by contrast, tend to withdraw into their own living spaces quite early and keep themselves to themselves. It’s not surprising that one group is going to rub the other up the wrong way.
Such cohabitation aversion is likely to be less about religion and more about clashing cultural habits.
Conclusion: take these findings with a pinch of salt.
Thanks for this. Interesting to hear a perspective from Austria. Schönes Wochenende!
Danke, dir auch!
À more interesting perspective on migration issues in Austria would be the very serious issues the schools are having at the moment (esp in Vienna) trying to absorb and deal with large numbers of kids who can’t speak good enough German to follow teaching. In Vienna, we’re talking 40%+ of school starters.
As you say Katherine these findings certainly require to be taken with a pinch of salt. My fairly conservative in-laws lived next door to a Muslim Pakistani family with whom they got on very well. The father was a psychiatrist and his sons all trained to be medical doctors, several married Catholic girls and all dressed in the normal English manner and were happy to exchange gifts at Christmas. They were effectively fully integrated apart from their religion and support for Pakistan in cricket.
I have no idea whether if asked the question about living next door to a Muslim family my in-laws would have said they would be happy on the basis of their actual experience or they would have thought about the prospect of living next to a family that dressed in some ethnic garb and had no interest in integrating and had some habits similar to your Turkish neighbours which would not have evoked the same positive feelings in them.
As others have observed there is no way of telling whether those who did not wish to live next to Jews and homosexuals were in fact not ethnic Austrians but of Muslim origin themselves and so not exactly far right in the traditional sense.
This topic requires a tonne of nuance and up until now it has been nothing but. The powers that be and the intellectual left have bullied and gaslit the public horrendously, and frankly people are getting tired of it. They are playing a dangerous game with the people of Europe. People such as yourself are shedding light on a flammable topic that desperately needs light.
If we kick this can down the road as we have done for far too long, our more extreme natures will come to the fore. Part of the problem is that were still have no concept of what our actual situation is. Another is the fact that people don’t fit well into silos. Not all Muslims want a caliphate, go around gang raping teenage girls so that they can be ordered by the courts to perform community service while annoying the local white populations so much that they finally say something and get jailed for it. Just like not all Jews excel. While my limited interactions with trans people have all been unpleasant because they have a chip on their shoulder and seem to lack the ability to return nice and kind behaviour (and please don’t gaslight me here for not being understanding enough).
I have had the great pleasure of interacting with many people from many different parts of the world. I have lived in a few countries which is a total privilege (not and should never be considered a right!), and my standard setting is one of being kind and polite. It has held me in good stead for decades and I will not change it now. I accept that I will encounter rude people which is why I support reimmigration of those who disrespect local European populations in Europe.
We need to stop using centuries old events as justification to mistreat European people and destroy their culture. Reimmigration is not the blanket removal of foreign peoples. It is basically saying, “here are the conditions of entry, abide by it or leave! If you will not leave, then we will remove you.” The longer this takes, the angrier average citizens will get. The stronger the backlash will be. Choose your hard!
One of the takeaways of this survey is that 36% of Austrians don’t want intolerant bigots living beside them, which is encouraging. But I’d like to know what the other 64% said. Perhaps many responses were ‘decline to answer’.
50% is extraordinarily low.
I would have thought at least 75% of Austrians would support the removal of people who cost them billions, spit on their culture and – occasionally – murder their children.
Internet says “As of 2023, approximately 26.7% of the entire population in Austria has a migration background” and so 50% of the population could easily be 65% of the Austrians.
> , 38% said they do not want to live next to Roma or Sinti people
So I’m an ignorant American and don’t know much about the “travellers” but my understanding of hearing from anyone that has ever interacted with them is that the only people who have no problem living next to the Roma is people that have never met the Roma?
Is this true, what exactly is it that causes them to have such a bad reputation?
Experienced and heard John. The answer is yes.
There is a nuance to every situation. They are people with a very distinct and strong culture. While they don’t see it this way because they reject our ways; which is their right, we should never force our ways on anyone. But they are very xenophobic. They see us as targets, not people.
A lot of people do not have the mental gymnastics to comprehend this fact but it helps dramatically to actually comprehend the fact rather than just recognise the words.
Romas are often very anti gay and many ostracise anyone dating or marrying outside their Roma community
I didn’t think much about the Roma until I started spending time in Romania with my in-laws. Now, sadly, can see why they get a bad rap.
One question I have is if they ignore rules and cultural norms because they’ve been ostracized, or if the ostracizing has pushed them to reject the rules and cultural norms as a means of rebellion/protest.
You gotta pump those numbers up
Those are rookie numbers
I wonder if the authors of the report would like to live next door to Roma?
If someone legally immigrated and contributed by getting a job then deporting them suddenly is fairly ludicrous. Really the only area governments can get tough on is if they are involved in organised crime.
I shall never forget watching the most stunning mixed race girl manning the most exclusive and expensive Paddock Ckub bar at the Austrian Grand Prix back in the early 2000s, and how both men and women guests actually avoided being served by her: I got chatting to her a bit later on, and she said that in Austria she just got used to it!
Only 50% want remigration? Why are Austrians so left/liberal?