Threat Perception and Social Distance towards Foreign Workers in Croatia: A 2019–2024 Shift in the Attitudes of Law Students

Recent migration trends in Croatia feature positive net migration alongside a deepening negative perception of foreigners. This paper aims to examine law students’ attitudes towards foreign workers over a five-year period, their key determinants, and their associations with social distance towards foreign workers. Survey conducted in 2019 on the attitudes of students at four law faculties in Croatia towards different categories of migrants was repeated in 2024. The results indicate a stronger perception of foreign workers in Croatia as a cultural and symbolic threat than as a real economic threat; however, at the latent level, these attitudes are combined into a single integrated economic–cultural dimension. These attitudes were confirmed as the strongest predictors of social distance towards foreign workers, which also increased significantly during the analysed period – from average acceptance of foreign workers as next-door neighbours in 2019 to average acceptance as workplace colleagues workplace in 2024. Regression analysis also confirmed a significant effect of political attitudes on social distance.