Fifty-five percent of Latvians are afraid of living near refugees - poll
RIGA. Dec 27 (Interfax-BNS) - Residents of Latvia do not like living near drug addicts, former prisoners and refugees, a poll conducted by the sociological research center SKDS shows.
The poll, which was conducted on November 6-18, surveyed 1,052 permanent residents of Latvia aged from 15 to 74.
Responding to the question as to "who are the people you do not want as your neighbors," most respondents (86%) said they see drug addicts as the most undesirable group and 70% mentioned former prisoners, BNS reported, citing the results of this poll.
Fifty-five percent of the respondents would not like to live near refugees, 53% do not want to live near Muslims, 52% do not want to live near Gypsies, 37% do not want to live near homosexuals, 31% do not want to live near Asians, 19% do not want to live near guest workers, and 18% do not want to live near people of color.
A mere 5% of the respondents said they would not like to live near Russians, families with young children and people with disabilities.
Six percent of the respondents do not object to any population groups.
The percentage of respondents who do not want to live near drug addicts, former prisoners, refugees, guest workers, and (more rarely) sexual minorities is higher among residents of Riga than among other residents. The percentage of respondents who would not like to live near artists, Asians, refugees, guest workers, and (more rarely) Muslims is higher among residents of other cities of Latvia. The percentage of people who mentioned almost all groups included in the list was lower among people living in villages than among city residents.