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Which countries show the highest levels of social hostility toward immigrants and minorities in recent surveys (2020-2025)?
Executive summary
Recent research and surveys (2020–2025) show elevated hostility toward immigrants and minorities in parts of Europe and North America, with consistent signals from academic studies, NGO reports and polling that countries such as Hungary, Czechia, parts of Eastern Europe, France, Germany and the United States report strong anti‑immigrant or discrimination patterns [1] [2] [3]. Global and OECD analyses also identify high self‑reported discrimination in some high‑income countries (e.g., United States, Hungary) while other sources flag rising hostility across Western democracies more broadly [4] [5] [6].
1. Where surveys and studies point to the sharpest hostility: clusters, not a single country
Cross‑national academic surveys and reviews find concentrated hostility in Central and Eastern Europe (Hungary, Czech Republic) and elevated anti‑immigrant sentiment in parts of Western Europe and North America, rather than a single global leader; the literature specifically names Czech Republic and Hungary as “consensually rather hostile” and notes East Europeans tend to be more negative than West Europeans [1]. Field and poll data also document growing anti‑immigrant sentiment ahead of elections in countries such as Germany [2].
2. The United States: high visibility, political amplification, and institutional indicators
U.S. reporting and NGO assessments document both hostile political rhetoric and policy practices: partisan political speech has become more dehumanizing (Republican rhetoric cited), and Human Rights Watch reports enforcement practices and programs that have produced abuses affecting migrants and minorities [7] [3]. Global indices flag the U.S. among high‑income countries with relatively high measured discrimination [4].
3. Western Europe: mixed but rising hostility tied to politics and media
Researchers show support for far‑right parties and anti‑immigrant attitudes correlate in many European countries; surveys and experiment‑based studies find increases in anger, mistrust and polarized social media dynamics in Western settings, and Eurobarometer/OECD reporting highlights widespread self‑reported discrimination in EU states [5] [8] [9]. France and some Nordic and Western European states repeatedly appear in discrimination and hiring‑bias studies [10] [11].
4. Role of media, social media and political actors in amplifying hostility
Experimental research links negative media portrayals to heightened physiological and emotional hostility toward immigrants, and other studies show online platforms concentrate polarized anti‑immigration messaging that spreads quickly across countries [12] [8]. Analysts and NGOs also document deliberate political manufacturing of migrant threat narratives by far‑right actors in multiple countries [13].
5. Measurement challenges: different questions, audiences and units of analysis
Comparing countries is difficult because studies use different measures—attitudinal polls, field experiments (hiring), self‑reported discrimination, or policy‑level indices—each can give different country rankings; for example, hiring discrimination studies and national opinion surveys sometimes point to different leaders, and authors warn that cross‑country comparisons can be misleading if the minority groups studied differ by country [11] [10] [14].
6. Who is most exposed and how that shapes findings
OECD and Pew work show minorities and immigrants report higher rates of discrimination and worse outcomes; self‑reported experiences are often highest in countries with larger visible‑minority populations and where people are more aware of bias, which can make some high‑income, diverse countries appear worse in surveys even as hostile attitudes exist elsewhere [9] [15] [14].
7. Competing interpretations and political context
Scholars differ on drivers: economic competition and perceived cultural threat explain much anti‑immigrant sentiment in many studies, while other research emphasizes authoritarian predispositions and the electoral incentives for politicians to stoke fear [1] [6] [16]. Some think media and elite rhetoric are the accelerant; others point to deeper structural xenophobia encoded in policy [12] [17].
8. What current reporting does not settle
Available sources do not provide a single, definitive ranked list (2020–2025) that combines comparable metrics across countries; many datasets and reports highlight clusters and trends but warn against simple country‑by‑country “worst” lists because of methodological differences [11] [10]. The literature instead points to recurring hotspots (Hungary, Czechia, parts of Western Europe, U.S.) and rising hostility across several Western democracies [1] [4] [5].
9. Practical takeaways for readers and policymakers
Policymakers and researchers should prioritize comparable measures (consistent survey questions, harmonized field experiments) and monitor both attitudes and structural policies; interventions that address media framing, electoral incentives, and structural discrimination are emphasized across studies as necessary to reduce hostility and attendant harms to immigrants and minorities [12] [17] [18].