Previous studies about the welfare state and fear of crime have suggested that a generous welfare state safeguard against fear of crime and that this is especially true for victims of crime. This study delves further into these ideas but assesses the role of welfare attitudes and victimisation on fear of crime. The aim is to investigate whether welfare attitudes, including support for government responsibility toward welfare services and income redistribution, are associated with fear of crime across Europe. Additionally, it aims to investigate whether there are differences in fear of crime between victims and non-victims at different levels of support for the welfare state. A multilevel ordered logistic model is used to assess this, with ESS data on the individual level and data from different official sources on the country level. The study found no or only slight evidence of a correlation between welfare attitudes and fear of crime. Support for welfare services was not associated with fear of crime. However, support for income redistribution increases fear of crime slightly. In terms of victimisation, prior victimisation increased the probability of fear of crime, which was consistent in the level of support for welfare services but differed in the level of support for income redistribution. Among victims, there was a higher probability of fear of crime at higher levels of support for income redistribution, and a lower probability of fear of crime at lower levels of support.

Immigration is a debatable topic, and Sweden offers a unique context due to its long-established liberal immigration policies and recent political shifts, making it an ideal case study for understanding broader European trends. The current study explores changes in public attitudes toward immigrants in Sweden from 2012 to 2020 using data from the final five waves (from 2012 to 2020) of the European Social Survey (ESS). Employing multi-group analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), this research aims to identify how attitudes have shifted over the study period and to analyze significant demographic (age, gender, domicile) and socioeconomic (income, education) influences on immigration attitudes. The results reveal a shift from generally positive to more negative perceptions, particularly between 2018 and 2020. Older age groups and individuals from rural areas exhibited more negative attitudes, while females generally displayed more positive attitudes than males. Moreover, females with higher education and higher income levels also demonstrate more favorable attitudes. These findings are crucial for policymakers, as they highlight the need for strategies that address demographic influences and suggest specific areas where interventions can help reduce negative views and improve social cohesion.

This thesis examined how the association between immigrants’ occupational origin and destination varies in 33 European countries, depending on the opportunities for social mobility in the origin country. For absolute occupational mobility, the result from an LPM regression showed that first-generation female immigrants had an increased probability of upward mobility when the origin country offered more opportunities for social mobility. In contrast, first-generation male immigrants showed an increased probability of immobility when the origin country offered more opportunities for social mobility. For relative occupational mobility, a multivariate OLS regression showed that first-generation male immigrants from countries with more opportunities for social mobility were more immobile compared to origin countries with fewer opportunities. Based on the World Economic Forum’s Global Social Mobility Index, a variable representing the opportunities for social mobility in the origin country was created. The study used four waves of the European Social Survey and the International Socio-Economic Index (ISEI) to measure the mobility patterns in absolute and relative rates over the scores of opportunities for social mobility in the origin country. Second-generation immigrants showed no significant results, and no gender differences could be established. The results were discussed in relation to first-generation immigrants’ Status Loss.

This master thesis illustrates the universality of Schwartz's value theory approach: culture of any group of people may be subject to the research and its value profile has a universal format. Both Czech and Finnish national value profiles and the value profiles of the helping professions in these two countries were calculated, based on data from The European Social Survey in 2012. On national levels, these profiles are representative. On the levels of helping professions, however, the profiles only serve as a model example-no representative data were available. In comparison with their national value profile, Czech model representatives of the helping professions attach more importance to all basic values in Schwartz's theory. In Finland, this is not the case for power, achievement, self-direction and security. This master thesis proposes several recommendations for potential surveys dealing with the impact of national culture on organization culture in health and social facilities. Especially, it highlights the necessity for quality value profiles of the structured helping professions. The reason for doing so is the outlined possibility (and maybe also necessity) to take different positions of individual professions into consideration. It also suggests to search for mathematical relations between...