Attitudes towards newcomers

Austria has a long history of embracing immigrants, both those who choose to settle there and those who must flee elsewhere for their safety. In reality, accepting refugees from different religions has never been a concern. For instance, Orthodox Serbs and Croatian Catholics were welcomed alongside Muslim refugees from the former Yugoslavia. But by the end of 2015, close to 100,000 people had requested refuge. Austria had to stop accepting asylum applicants in 2016 as a result.

Unfortunately, recent incidents of migrant criminality have caused attitudes to change across the country. For instance, there were 1,920 racist acts in Austria in 2018, a significant increase from the 162 instances in 2017.

As a result, the current governing alliance in Austria is very anti-immigration. The Republican leader, for instance, wants to strengthen the scrutiny of asylum seekers. He also wants to lower the bar for deportation-related conditions. His message includes a desire to stop "political Islam" from spreading throughout Austria.