The survey was conducted by the Target agency in May and June on 800 respondents around the country. Citizens showed equal degrees of xenophobia and benignity towards immigrants, but 63 per cent expressed fear that immigrants might take their jobs and that Croatia's interest would not be most important to foreigners.
A positive attitude by the majority towards multiculturalism and support for protection from discrimination are somewhat weaker when it comes to equal employment rights.
The survey shows that more than 20 per cent of the population is xenophobic, most to the Roma (44%) and least to immigrants from the Western European Union (14%).
Croatian citizens feel quite a high level of xenophobia towards groups they coexisted with, for example Serbs (38%), but also towards those they have not had contact with, such as the Chinese (32%) and Arabs (27%).
Sara Lalic of the Centre for Peace Studies said the time was right for Croatia to start dealing with this problem, given that EU accession might bring more immigrants and the difficult economic situation could trigger even greater intolerance. She urged politicians, institutions and the media to deal with this.
Human Rights Ombudswoman Lora Vidovic underlined the importance of the survey. Last year, her office received about 200 complaints from citizens which, alongside information from various associations, show that Croatia cannot be satisfied and should step up education and the application of anti-discrimination laws, she said.