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Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) Module 5 (English Version)

General Information:

*Note: The items were tested in German. These are English translations of the original German wordings. The translations do not correspond exactly to the formulations in the English CSES source questionnaire.*

Question Text:

Now thinking about ethnic minorities. Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, neither agree or disagree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree with the following statements:
[Und wenn Sie nun an ethnische Minderheiten denken: Inwieweit stimmen Sie den folgenden Aussagen zu?]
Two respondents report problems with the question text. Respondent 01 does not understand the term “ethnic” and is therefore incapable of answering Item a) (answer: “don’t know”). Respondent 06 is confused by the difference between the question text and the item text in Item a), as the question refers to “ethnic minorities”, while the item is just about “minorities” (“So now it is only about ethnic minorities and not for example socially marginalized groups?”, ID 06).

Answer Categories:

Strongly agree [Stimme voll und ganz zu]
Somewhat agree [Stimme eher zu]
Neither agree nor disagree [Weder noch]
Somewhat disagree [Stimme eher nicht zu]
Strongly disagree [Stimme überhaupt nicht zu]
Refused [Verweigert]
Don't know [Weiß nicht]

Cognitive Techniques:

General Probing, Specific Probing
Item Text Actively tested

Item Text:

a) Minorities should adapt to German customs.
[Minderheiten sollten sich den deutschen Gepflogenheiten anpassen.]

Recommendations:

For the sake of consistency, the term „Minderheiten“ (“minorities”) should be replaced with the term „Einwanderer“ (“immigrants”):

"Immigrants should conform to German customs."
["Einwanderer sollten sich den deutschen Gepflogenheiten anpassen.“]
Yes
b) Immigrants are generally good for Germany’s economy.
[Einwanderer sind im Allgemeinen gut für die deutsche Wirtschaft.] 		No

Item Text:

c) Germany's culture is generally threatened by immigrants.
[Die deutsche Kultur wird durch Einwanderer bedroht.]

Recommendations:

Due to the finding that the term „bedrohen“ („threatens“) is sometimes perceived as too strong in this context, it could be replaced with a term such as „untergraben“ (“undermined”). This (or rather a very similar) wording was tested in an earlier pretest (ISSP 2013/2014, dx.doi.org/10.17173/pretest10) and found to be comprehensible:

"Germany’s culture is undermined by immigrants."
["Die deutsche Kultur wird von Einwanderern untergraben.“]
Yes