ABSTRACT
The influx and presence of migrants have become major political issues causing much controversy. European countries had not actually developed immigration policies when they were faced with growing numbers of immigrants who knocked on the doors to work or to reunify families. Significant growth in immigration beginning in the 1970s sparked public debates on immigration policies that continue in the present (Pettigrew 1998), indicating resistance to immigrants. When in the 1980s and particularly in the 1990s growing numbers of asylum seekers from all around the world also found their way to European states, a related debate came to the fore implying resistance to asylum seekers. Semyonov, Raijman, and Gorodzeisky (2006) showed that the rise of antiforeigner sentiment had been rather steep, particularly in the period between 1988 and 1994, and leveled off after that period.
