Do men and women perceive immigrants differently? Analysis of gender gaps in attitudes toward immigrants among different groups of Luxembourg residents

Luxembourg is one of the European countries with the largest proportion of immigrants in the population and a relatively long immigration history. According to the latest official statistics, immigrants represent 44% of the resident population. Thus, we observe a progressive change in the population profile where the number of immigrants is slowly reaching the number of natives. In this context, the notion of the minority/majority dichotomy is losing its traditional sense. This situation, unique in Europe, evokes a lot of questions regarding perception of newcomers. Despite the fact that there have not been many research published on perception of immigrants in Luxembourg, the available international literature analyzing the immigrant-related sentiment in European societies (Semyonov et al., 2006) shows that Luxembourg residents as a whole have a generally positive attitude toward the resident foreign community/immigrants. This study reveals that Luxembourg residents have exhibited the most positive attitude among 12 analyzed EU countries between 1988 and 2000. ?In 2000, negative attitudes toward foreigners were most pronounced in Greece, Belgium, Germany, and France, and least pronounced in Spain, Luxembourg, and Italy.? (Semyonov et al., 2006:436).