ABSTRACT
The sharp increase in the number of refugees coming to Europe has raised two central questions of solidarity, both of which are examined in this chapter. The first question is whether Europeans are willing to grant asylum seeking refugees the right to stay in Europe (external solidarity), and the second is whether Europeans are willing to share the costs of accommodation and integration among each other (internal solidarity). Our findings show that a majority of Europeans are willing to grant refugees the right to stay in Europe and support the idea of reallocating them between EU member states. However, this does not hold true for all countries, in particular not for the surveyed Visegrád countries. The majority of people in these countries refuse to accept refugees who are seeking asylum because they have been persecuted for their Muslim religious affiliation and they reject the notion that each EU country should share a similar burden. In addition, we found that social cleavages translate into political cleavages both within as well as between EU countries. Of all the crises that the European Union faces, the refugee crisis challenges European solidarity the most.
