Austria's Integration Barometer, a survey conducted since 2015 on behalf of the country's integration fund ÖIF has revealed what makes foreigners successfully integrated in the country, according to the locals.
The survey asked Austrian citizens what are the key factors for integration. Ninety percent of them pointed to three things that will make a successfully integrated immigrant.
First, knowledge and recognition of values and laws, which relates to the concerns about attitudes towards women and violence and crime. Also, "having a profession" was a crucial factor for integration, according to the locals - and a clear majority (76 percent) are in favour of facilitating immigration for well-qualified workers.
Austria has been working on several reforms to make it easier the Red-White-Red work permit, which is given to qualified or skilled workers, as the country faces massive shortages in many sectors, as reported. At the same time, unemployment has increased in Austria this quarter, compared to one year ago. And the increase is more pronounced for foreign nationals than for people with an Austrian passport, according to Statistik Austria.
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Finally, good knowledge of the German language was the third decisive factor for successful integration. Most Austrians (a large majority, 82 percent) also believe that refugees should acquire a basic knowledge of German "within certain deadlines" or face sanctions, the survey showed.
The survey also revealed that Austrian citizens are increasingly concerned about immigration issues.
Compared to previous waves of the survey, the population has an increasingly negative view of living together with refugees, immigrants and Muslims, in particular. About a third of respondents said that they were concerned about the "spread of political Islam", followed by "conflicts between migrant groups" (27 percent) and "another wave of refugees like in 2015" (27 percent).
Compared to the last survey in March 2023, concern about the spread of political Islam has increased the most, by 7 percentage points. For Austrians, there are three big integration challenges in living together: cultural and language differences, attitudes towards women, and violence and crime. They are also concerned about the "willingness of immigrants and refugees to integrate".
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As in the previous surveys, the new survey also shows that Austrians have a predominantly negative view of coexistence with refugees, immigrants and Muslims. The values have deteriorated further compared to March 2023: a majority of 65 percent perceive poor coexistence with immigrants - one of the highest values since 2016.
The majority of respondents rate coexistence in schools, residential areas and public spaces negatively. In contrast, being together with migrants at work and in shopping areas is perceived more positively.
For the Integration Barometer, which has been conducted continuously since 2015 on behalf of the Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF), opinion researcher Peter Hajek surveyed 1,000 Austrian citizens aged 16 and over in October 2023 on the coexistence of people with and without a migration background.
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