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Multi-Item Scale:

Now thinking about ethnic minorities. Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, neither agree or disagree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree with the following statements:<br> <i>[Und wenn Sie nun an ethnische Minderheiten denken: Inwieweit stimmen Sie den folgenden Aussagen zu?]</i>

Item Text:

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

Different Answer Format Tested:

Nein

Findings:

Two respondents (ID 12, 15) “agree somewhat“ with this item, whereas seven “somewhat disagree” (ID 01, 02, 04, 10, 13, 14, 16) and five “strongly disagree” (ID 03, 05, 06, 07, 08). Two respondents (ID 09, 11) cannot answer this item as they perceive the term “threatened” as too strong in this context:
  • “Threatened sounds like blood and thunder. That’s too extreme.“ (ID 09).
  • “Threatened? That doesn’t quite fit the bill, it sounds so dumb. You’re threatened when there is an outbreak of war. If they threaten us with guns, then the term fits, but in this sense it is not a threat.” (ID 11).
The respondents (ID 12, 15) who „agree somewhat“ explain their answers as follows:
  • “That’s a major issue. When I look at all those Islamic countries where the men are princes and the women are seen as worthless. If that spills over to us and is adopted, or if a large part of the population thinks like that, I don’t consider that to be good. I don’t want my daughters to be forced to wear a headscarf.” (ID 12)
  • “Here is an example: It is a German custom not to hang out laundry on a Sunday. Since Albanians live alongside us, no one cares about that anymore. But because so many live here now, it can’t be changed. I don’t think it’s right.” (ID 15)
Those respondents who „somewhat disagree“ or „strongly disagree“ argue that they perceive immigrants as an enrichment (6 respondents), that it is the Germans themselves who are responsible for the continued existence of their culture (2 respondents) or that the number of immigrants is yet too small to be considered a threat (4 respondents):
  • „There are still too few immigrants for it to be considered a threat to the culture.“ (ID 04)
  • „It’s always up to oneself, up to the German people, whether they let this happen or not. We are ourselves responsible for our traditions.“ (ID 08)
  • „No, first and foremost it is enriched.“ (ID 16) (TP 16)
Upon request, five respondents (ID 03, 07, 08, 13, 14) could not imagine a scenario where the German culture could be threatened by immigrants. All other respondents named Islamic influences. In particular, a different perception of gender relations (“I don’t want my daughters to be forced to wear a headscarf.”, ID 12), the marginalization of the majority religion of Christianity (“I’m thinking of debates about the implementation of Islam lessons at school”, ID 04) as well as extremists were classified as (potentially) threatening.

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.“]