Utdanning og sosialisering som brobyggere i et multikulturelt samfunn

There is an ongoing public and political debate in Norway pertaining to immigration and integration. Recent research has shown that there is a link between education and majority population acceptance for people from other cultures. In this article we investigate the link between the proportion of persons with another cultural background than the majority of a country, and people's attitudes toward immigration. We perform a multilevel analysis of 22 European countries. The results show a cross-level interaction effect between the ratio of ethnic minorities in a given country, and the education level of the respondent. There is a strong positive (toward immigrants) effect of education. However, this effect is significantly smaller in countries with a large share of minorities. We explain this finding through "intergroup contact theory" i.e.,countries with many immigrants will also have better opportunities for interaction between the minority and majority groups. This leads to more positive attitudes among those with lower education. Our conclusion is that a large percentage of immigrants do not automatically lead to more friction in a society. Nonetheless, we stress that one should focus on information and education of the majority population to make integration more successful.