Ethnic distance - United Nations in Serbia

Ethnic distance and ethnic and gender
stereotypes of
youth in south Serbia
(in Vranje, Preševo and Bujanovac)

• This survey is conducted within the project
“1,2,3” to inform capacity development needs
of young people in Vranje, Bujanovac and
Presevo
• Project is implemented by CSO NEXUS-Vranje
• Project is funded by PBILD in amount of 2,738
USD
• Survey conducted in September 2011 in
Vranje, Bujanovac and Preševo
2

GOALS OF SURVEY
• To get the clear picture of ethnic distance of youth of
Serbian, Albanian and Roma nationality in south Serbia
(in Vranje, Preševo and Bujanovac)
• Heterostereotypes (and autostereotypes) about
representatives of Serbian, Roma and Albanian
nationality
• Heterostereotypes about women in these three
communities.
3

Where is this survey conducted
Vranje:
High school of economy
High school of medicine
High school of chemistry
Gornja Čarsija settlement
Bujanovac:
High school "Sveti Sava“
High school "Sezai Suroi“
Južna Morava settlement
Preševo:
Technical school
Gimnasium "Skenderbeu"
“Železnička stanica”
settlement
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SAMPLE
• The study included 224 young people, aged 17-
18, of Serbian, Albanian and Roma nationality.
• Out of total number of respondents 50% were
women
5

• The sample in this study was 34% Serbs, 35%
Roma and 31% Albanians, or
• 33% Roma women, 36% Serbian women and
31% Albanian women
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Ethnic distance
• Measure of closeness or distance of the
individual in relation to any ethnic group.
• If the distance is greater, the more influence
behaviour in the community, or the inability of
social communication and participation in
joint programmes that are intended to
improve general living conditions
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Instrument for measuring the distance: a modified Bogardus
scale
11 relations are measured:
• To marry,
• To be friend,
• To be neighbor,
• To be my chief,
• To work in the same company,
• To visit the same locations in the city,
• To be equal in local self-government structures,
• To manage in my Republic,
• To have autonomy in my Republic,
• To live permanently in my Republic,
• I would exclude him/her from my Republic
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Results
Ranks of rejection -Vranje, Bujanovac, Preševo
Kriterijum I rang II rang III rang
Da stupim u brak
r a s
Da budemo prijatelji/ce
a r s
Da mi bude komšija/nica
a r s
Da mi bude šef/ica
a r s
Da radimo u istoj firmi
a r s
Da izlazimo na ista mesta u gradu
a s r
Da budu ravnopravni/e u organima lokalne samouprave
a r s
Da rukovodi u mojoj Republici
r a s
Da imaju autonomiju u mojoj Republici a r s
Da stalno živi u mojoj Republici
Isključio bih ga/je iz moje Republike
9
a r s
a r s

• The table shows that the first rank mostly have
Albanians (9 out of 11) which means that they would
be the rarest one for interaction
• Second rank mostly have Roma but there is lesser
rejection than Albanians
• Serbs are mostly accepted (10 out of 11 criteria) and
they have third rank.
10

• The nations reject each other mostly in supervisional
relations specially in higher level (in Republic) and in
relations that imply higher level of intimacy, like
marriage
• To allow members of “other” nationalities to decide
in “our” country about “our” staff and to allow them
to independently run some part of it is equally
unacceptable for all nationalities.
11

• None of three ethnic groups is willing to see
members of other ethnic groups in positions or in
roles with power
• If they allow member of other ethnic group some
privileged position that would mean to decrease the
position of the ethnic group he/she belongs and to
endanger it.
• Relations of friendship exclude relations of
subordinate-superior relationship, exclude someone
domination and encourage exchange and equality
which mitigate sense of vulnerability and that is the
reason why these relations are acceptable.

• There is a higher ranking in ethnic distance of
Serbs to Albanians and vice versa, while the
distance of both sides to Roma is lesser.
• Ethnic distance depends of place of living.
• So we have a case that in Vranje Albanians are
more rejected than Roma.
• Albanians are least rejected in Preševo and
Roma in Bujanovac.
13

• This result is in accordance with opinion that
attitudes that affect behaviour to other
ethnic groups are rarely formed in direct
relations to others and mostly by listening of
such views and experience of others and
mostly what political and social elite speak
through media.
• Considered in this way, ethnic distance is
above all orchestrated by media
representation of others.
14

• Most rejected are Albanians, then Roma while Serbs
are mostly accepted.
• “Negative treatment” of Albanians is an expected
consequence of years of conflict between them and
Serbs which caused hostility, feelings of
vulnerability and mistrust.
• Roma as a group are completely marginalized and
great distance is manifested to this ethnicity
although there is no reason for that in historical
background, actual conflicts or territorial claims. It is
very likely that racial prejudice are coming from their
differences (language, customs, appearance).
15

Place of living and
distance
• Young people from Bujanovac are expressing
smallest ethnic distance, than youth from
Vranje while it is most pronounced among
young people from Presevo.
• Citizens of Presevo have maximum distance
to Serbs,
• Citizens of Vranje have maximum distance to
Albanians (although they have the least direct
contact
• Citizens of Presevo have maximum distance to
Roma. 16

Place of living and
distance
• This finding can point two things:
1. Prejudices are much stronger to the group
that is objectively unknown so in Vranje is
the greatest distance to Albanians although
there are almost no Albanians in Vranje,
2. Distance is the smallest in the communities
whereas is perceptually almost equal
representation of these three ethnicities
(Bujanovac)
17

Gender and
distance
• Gender doesn’t affect distance particularly but
women are less distanced than men. (Minimum
distance is showed by women from Vranje, than
Bujanovac and Presevo)
• Minimum distance within men is shown by male
from Bujanovac
• Maximum distance is shown by Albanians, than
Serbs and the smallest is shown by Roma. The
greatest distance is shown in Presevo and the
smallest in Vranje
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STEREOTYPES
• Features which members of one ethnic group
attribute to members of other ethnic groups
(heterostereotypes) or their
(autostereotypes) and not individually but
because they are members of groups for
which the features are assume
• Some stereotypes are very disseminated and
there is great degree of agreement between
the young people that the certain
characteristic describes members of some
ethnic group.
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Heterostereotypes
about Albanians
obtained on the whole sample
Results in %
Aggressive 50
Insolent 44
Hate others 42
Pretty 41
Culture 37
Evil 33
Like to rule 33
Intelligent 32
Cold 32
Warm-hearted 32
20

Heterostereotypes
about Serbs
obtained on the whole sample
Results in %
Tolerant 53
Proud 51
Friendly 50
Evil 48
Retarded 42
Pretty 41
Temperament 41
Rough 40
Intelligent 38
Aggressive 38
21

Heterostereotypes
about Roma
obtained on the whole sample
Results in %
Happy 53
Kind-hearted 47
Honest 38
Hardworking 38
Friendly 37
Pretty 37
Calm 37
United 36
Hospitable 32
Dirty 31
22

• The image of Albanians in Vranje, where there are almost
no Albanians, is very negative
• Roma have pretty negative image on Albanians and
pretty positive image on Serbs
• Image of Albanians and Serbs of Roma is not so negative
but dominant features are describing them negatively
• Albanians do not see Roma as someone who is threaten
them as a nation but they see Serbs in that way
23

• Serbs see Albanians as a nation that have
tendencies to threaten other people and they are
not willing to see their positive features.
• On the other side, although Albanians see Serbs
in negative sense, they are still attribute them
some positive features (culture, friendly,
intelligent).
• Both of them described other side as aggressive,
those who like to rule, and hate the other.
24

• Generally speaking, slight tendency is noticed
that Serbs describe other nations in negative
sense more that other describes them.
• In order to have positive opinion about
himself/herself, individual avoid bad opinion
about his/her group and tend to magnify its
qualities. When there is division of groups it is
almost always that own group is presented as
better than other. That was evident this time,
too.
25To se pokazalo i ovog puta.

Autostereotypes
of Albanians
obtained on the whole sample
Results in %
Pretty 48
Culture 45
Kind-hearted 36
Intelligent 33
Tolerant 29
Clean 28
Hardworking 27
Friendly 26
Honest 23
Reasonable 23
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Autostereotypes
of Serbs
obtained on the whole
sample
Results in %
Pretty 53
Intelligent 47
Happy 43
Hospitable 43
Culture 41
Friendly 41
Hardworking 40
Brave 40
Warm-hearted 39
Proud 36
27

Autostereotypes
of Roma
obtained on the whole
sample
Results in %
Happy 63
Warm-hearted 53
Honest 50
Hardworking 50
United 50
Pretty 50
Calm 47
Brave 45
Resourceful 44
Hospitable 41
28

• Heterostereotype of Serbs about Albanians is
extremely negative and pretty widespread and
autostereotype is pretty positive and also
unified.
• Autostereotype of Albanians is also pretty
positive and unified and heterostereotype
about Serbs pretty negative.
29

• When one group starts to experience itself as
the most correct, most moral, superior that,
soon or later makes that group to draw
boundaries between themselves and others.
In limited group sense of vulnerability is
always developed and that is the reason for
interruption of communication with inferior
and the group turns to isolation.
30

Gender stereotypes
• In many cultures, male features are
traditionally valued as superior to female.
These stereotypes are problematic since they
don’t consider real differences of gender and
sexuality in human population.
31

Gender stereotypes of
women
Results in %
Pretty 89
Nice 69
Gentle 66
Romantic 64
Modern 63
Honest 63
Compassionate 63
Hard-working 61
Pleasant 58
Tidy 57
32

Gender stereotypes of
men
Results in %
Likes sport 76
Athletic 69
Sociable 63
Brave 63
Determined 58
Funny 57
Persistent 55
Energetic 54
Active 54
Adventurous 54
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• Based on these results, we can conclude that
there is a model that describes woman as
modern, less patriarchal than was the case in
previous research: pretty, nice, modern,
gentle, romantic etc.
• This image of women is seen both from
females and males.
34

• In the stereotype of male role we can see one
type, so called “sports-loving” type of person
(he likes sport, athletic, friendly, brave etc.).
• Culture stereotypes says that the desirable
women behaviour is to be emotional, honest,
hospitable, faithful, tidy. Mentioned features
are not so expressed with our examinees so
we can assume that the image of woman is
slightly changing – from traditional to modern.
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• We can notice compatibility of image that
women have about themselves and image
that men have about women. This
compatibility imposes the assumption that
although image of women in this part of
Serbia is slightly changing from the traditional
to modern, it is still conditioned by social
norms and depends on image that is imposed
by patriarchal society.
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For more details, please refer to publication
“Ethnic distance and ethnic and gender
stereotypes
of young people in South of Serbia
(in Vranje, Preševo and Bujanovac)”
or
nexusvranje@gmail.com
www.nexusvranje.com
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This publication is created with the financial
support of PBILD.
The findings and recommendations contained in
this research are those of the CSO NEXUS—
Vranje and do not necessarily reflect the
position of the PBILD
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Thank you!
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