Cyprus Mail (June 30, 2010) Article “Migrants are ‘dirty’ and ‘uncivilised’ schoolchildren say” ——-
“MORE THAN half of school students consider migrants to be ‘dirty’, ‘dangerous’ and ‘uncivilised’ a survey on migrants showed yesterday.
Against a backdrop of increasing numbers of foreign children in the island’s schools, 54 per cent of the 10 to 16-year-olds questioned (1,280) have a negative stance towards migrants.
The students that revealed a negative or mildly negative view were found to express feeling of dislike, indifference, disgust, avoidance and fear, viewing migrants as “dirty”, “bad”, “dangerous”, “uncivilised” and “criminals”. Their perceptions appeared to revolve around ideas such as that “migrants make Cyprus worse, they steal jobs from Cypriots, they are responsible for the increased crime rate and they constitute a threat to national identity”.
The students expressing these views, which were primarily boys and older students, would prefer a Cyprus without migrants and feel the need for migrants to conform by thinking, dressing and acting like Cypriots, according to the survey.