In news that might come as a surprise to some people, the UK was found to be more tolerant of different races than other countries around the world.
A study carried out by the Policy Institute of King’s College London looked at the level of racism around the world and found some surprising results.
The research, which looked at 24 countries and their trust, tolerance and acceptance towards people from different racial backgrounds, will form part of the World Values Survey.
Citizens from the countries were asked to vote on who they wouldn’t want to have as a neighbour, with 5% of Brits saying they would not want immigrants or foreign workers.
Meanwhile, Iran, Russia, and Japan had higher intolerance levels, at 42%, 32%, and 30% respectively.
The respondents were also asked whether they would not want someone of a different race to live next to them.
While 2% of Brits agreed, those leading the list at 28%, 24%, and 21% were Iran, Greece and the Philippines.
However, this study contradicts with findings from earlier analysis which found that one in three people of colour have experienced hate crimes and verbal abuse.
Results from the King’s College study
Number of people who don’t want a different race to live next door:
Number of people who don’t want immigrants and foreign workers next door:
Previous research from the universities of St Andrews, Manchester and King’s College found contradicting results.
In a book called Racism and Ethnic Inequality in a Time of Crisis, the two-year study found that racism was ‘part of daily lives’.
Anisha*, 24, London, who works as a civil servant, says she isn’t too shocked by the results.
She tells Metro.co.uk: ‘It doesn’t surprise me because relatively speaking, England doesn’t seem that racist because other countries seem to torment other races a lot more and it’s normalised.
‘Ethnic persecution is currently happening in some countries right now, and it’s not challenged as much. While the UK does have a race problem, some people might hold these views privately because it’s still considered a faux pas to be seen as a racist, whereas that racism is a lot more open and considered unproblematic in other countries.’
Lolade Jinadu, 29, a paralegal from London, also says the study might have some flaws.
‘The results are not surprising at the same time as not being true, and what kind of metric are they using to come out with these results? It seems to be a limited measurement of racism to only consider the neighbour line.
‘There are a lot of British people who would agree and say “I’d love to have a person of a different race as a neighbour” but who may very clearly be racist. This line of questioning is a very British way of determining racism’.
However, Thania, a creative based between London and Berlin, says the study reflects her experiences of living in both cities.
She tells Metro.co.uk: ‘After living in Germany for the past five years and facing more racism here than ever before in the UK, I find these results believable.’
On finding out that Germany also ranks similarly to the UK (with 3% of Germans saying they don’t want a person of colour next door), Kiron adds: ‘This is very surprising because in my experience, Germans have been very racist in professional and personal settings.
‘They don’t seem to believe racism exists in Germany and that it’s an American problem. So I can’t imagine they owned up to their prejudices when answering questions in the study.’
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