Abstract
As refugee flows have increased, western attitudes towards them have become conflicted. Attitudes towards refugees in non-western and in Muslim nations are rarely studied, though these nations accept most refugees. This study of attitudes towards refugees among tertiary students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Lebanon, Russia and Kyrgyzstan used Appraisal and content analysis frequencies and co-frequencies. Results showed that the Lebanese realised greater affect, possibly due to their experience of refugees. More generally, nationality shaped attitudes more than religion, tertiary students favour technocratic solutions by government actors despite realistically estimating the challenge, and while students critically analyse the problems created by refugee inflows, they retain a nativist stance and seem unaware of the optics and politics of this stance.
Highlights
Western nations receiving refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war are debating their commitment to their humanitarian obligations to receive and shelter refugees. This debate reflects the unprecedented scale of displacement and the ructions of the neoliberal western world order, and has called into question national identities, and shaped political leadership
The Syrian refugee crisis is often taken as a precursor to the anticipated refugee flows which will accompany future climate change
Research questions addressed in this study included: How do non-western Muslims and extra-western westerners respond to closing borders to refugees? What attitudes are shared among the educated non-western Muslim and non-Muslim westerner youth who will become global entrepreneurs, professionals, media managers, policy-makers and business decision-makers in a decade’s time? What are the impacts of being culturally central or less so, economically stronger or less so?
Summary
Western nations receiving refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war are debating their commitment to their humanitarian obligations to receive and shelter refugees. This debate reflects the unprecedented scale of displacement and the ructions of the neoliberal western world order, and has called into question national identities, and shaped political leadership. The Syrian refugee crisis is often taken as a precursor to the anticipated refugee flows which will accompany future climate change. Tertiary students will be the decision-makers handling future refugee flows. This study explores the subjective attitudes and content they realise about Syrian refugees
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