Perceptions of the Population of the Republic of Moldova - Soros ...

Perceptions of the Population of the Republic of Moldova on Discrimination: Sociological Study 14The share of people who consider the increase of the gap between the rich and the poor as being amain factor that has led to a higher level of discrimination is higher in the urban area (56% compared to therural one - 43%), in the age group of 65 years (56%), among respondents looking for a job (55%) and amongrespondents of Russian ethnicity (57%).The share of persons who believe the loss of moral values has led to a higher level of discrimination inMoldova is higher among school and university students (34%) and the persons of Gagauz ethnicity (26%).Tolerance and respect for other peoples’ culture in terms of moralvaluesIn this survey, we have tried to establish the importance of tolerance and respect to other peoples’culture for the respondents, in terms of moral values, and to what extent such values are respected inMoldova.The Study has revealed that, although 89% of the respondents consider tolerance as a very importantor rather important moral value, it is positioned as far as the sixth place in the list of values, after the faith inGod (94%), respect for other people (94%), respect for the law (94%), human freedom (93%) and humanequality (91%) (see Chart 4).Chart 4. Level of importance of moral values for respondents, %very/rather important very/rather unimportant I don’t knowrespect for other peoples’ culturetrust in peopleequitytolerancehuman equalityhuman freedomrespect for the lawrespect for other peoplefaith in God83 15 283 16 188 8 489 6 591 7 293 6 194 5 194 5 194 5 1Only 83% of the respondents consider faith in people and respect for other peoples’ culture as beingrather important or very important to them.The share of those who consider tolerance as a rather important or very important value gets higher asthe respondents’ age goes down (from 82% in the age group 65+ up to 92% in the age group 18-34) and asthe level of education goes up (from 81% among the persons with primary and junior high schooleducation up to 92% in the group of people with graduate and postgraduate studies).In terms of ethnicity, the share of respondents who consider tolerance as a rather important or veryimportant value is higher among Bulgarians (97%), Gagauz people (92%) and Moldovans/Romanians (92%)and lower among persons of Russian (86%) and Ukrainian (85%) ethnicity (85%).The value assigned to tolerance by the respondents also depends on the extent to which they valueother moral principles such as the faith in God, trust in people, respect for other people. Thus, according tothe survey, the share of those who consider tolerance as very important is higher among the respondentsfor whom faith in God is very important or rather important (90%) than among those for whom faith in Godis rather or totally unimportant (75%). At the same time, the share of respondents who deem tolerance veryimportant or rather important is higher in the group of respondents for whom trust in people is veryimportant or rather important than in the group of those for whom this does not represent a value (90%compared to 81%). 91% of the respondents who regard the respect for people as a rather important or veryimportant principle value tolerance in the same way, as compared to 61% - in the group of people forwhich the respect for other people is rather or totally unimportant.