Two-thirds of Lithuanians do not want to live in the neighborhood with people with mental disabilities, about half - next to homosexuals, Muslims, and one-third - next to migrants from Russia, according to a study published on Wednesday.
According to his data, people from these groups do not want to work together.
As the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination approaches, the results of the study were presented by the Ethnic Studies Department of the Institute of Sociology of the Lithuanian Social Sciences Center (LSMC) and the non-governmental organization "Diversity Development Group". The population survey was conducted in November 2023 in order to investigate the attitudes of Lithuanians towards various social, ethnic, religious and migrant groups.
According to Monika Frėjūtė-Rakauskienė, head of the LSMC's Ethnic Research Department, the center has been carrying out public attitudes towards various ethnic, social, and religious groups since 2005. Previously, the attitude of Lithuanians towards ethnic, racial, religious groups, people with disabilities, and non-native speakers was studied.
After the number of migrants in Lithuania exceeded 200 thousand, according to her, it was decided to study the attitude towards three larger groups of migrants - Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians. The attitude towards generalized groups was also studied - persons with disabilities, homosexuals, people of other races and ethnic groups, other non-traditional Christian faiths, as well as persons who do not know the Lithuanian language and migrants.
Unwanted in the neighborhood
In the first question, Lithuanians were asked - with whom Lithuanians do not want to live in the neighborhood.
According to M. Frejūtė-Rakauskienė, four groups are in the "most unfavorable position": persons with mental disabilities (65%), homosexuals (54%), Muslims (47%) and migrants from Russia (35%).
"There is a large social distance with persons who do not know the Lithuanian language (22%), representatives of other non-traditional non-Christian origins (22%), less - with persons of a different race color (19%), persons of another ethnic group (18%) , the smallest of which is for migrants from Ukraine (12 percent)," said the expert.
According to the sociologist, migrants from Russia are viewed as persons from the aggressor country that started the war in Ukraine, and to the migrants of the latter country - as war refugees, victims of the invasion. A negative attitude is also recorded towards Belarusians - 18% stated that they do not want to live next to them. survey respondents.
According to M. Frėjūtė-Rakauskienė, comparing the data with 2022, it can be seen that the social distance with the mentioned groups is increasing, which reflects the prevailing stigma in society about mental disability, which one does not want to face, to talk about publicly.
"Increased negative attitudes towards homosexuals - on the one hand, I am a little surprised in the sense that "Baltic pride" is also being organized, and homosexuals are slowly starting to be talked about in public, discussing the problems they face. "Tendencies towards intolerant public attitudes towards homosexuals and hate speech directed against them are also confirmed in other social studies," she said.
In her opinion, the distance from their point of view increased also because The Seimas in the last two years, the partnership law, alternative versions, have been discussed. There were also talks about the non-ratification of the Istanbul Convention, where issues related to homosexuality are raised.
According to Ms. Frėjūtė-Rakauskienė, looking at the data of the last ten years, the mentioned groups, next to which Lithuanians do not want to live and work together, remain similar.
He does not want to work with people who do not speak Lithuanian
According to the head of the Ethnic Research Department, earlier studies showed that Lithuanians were more inclined to work with persons from the mentioned groups, but "the tendencies here are quite surprising".
According to her, the research shows that they do not want to work with people who do not know the Lithuanian language (34%) more than with Muslims (33%). However, the greatest distance on this issue remains for people with mental disabilities (61%) and homosexuals (40%).
"This is related to the trend due to the Russian war in Ukraine, the diminishing prestige of the Russian language in society, there are discussions about the population's attitude to the increased use of the Russian language in the public space, in everyday situations. Russian is becoming the language of communication with migrants from Ukraine, Belarus, Russia," she said.
According to her, compared to the 2022 survey, the social distance towards all groups has increased, especially persons with mental disabilities (increased by 18%), homosexual persons (increased by 16%), and persons who do not know the Lithuanian language (increased by 11%).
Kęstutis Grumodas, a researcher of the non-governmental organization "Diversity Development Group", says that the study shows that the distance between most social groups is growing. Lithuanians believe that refugees can have a more negative than positive influence on society and the state, and the media plays a positive role in shaping attitudes.
A representative survey of the Lithuanian population was conducted on November 2023-16, 27.
The survey was initiated by the Ethnic Studies Department of the LSMC Institute of Sociology and the non-governmental organization Diversity Development Group. The survey was conducted by the Lithuanian-British market and public opinion research company "Baltijos tyrimi". During the research, 1018 Lithuanian residents were interviewed.
The author is Jurgita Andriejauskaitė
