Language, Individual & Society, Volume 12, 2018

Abstract: Theories which focus on the role of values in shaping individual attitudes towards immigrants, are particularly relevant in the context of the immigrant wave in Europe in recent years. Despite the increased interest in the challenges posed by immigration, research on the relationship between Bulgarians' values and their attitude towards immigrants is currently lacking in Bulgarian scientific literature. This publication presents the results of two studies designed to help fill this gap. The first one is a nationally representative sociological survey conducted by a team at the Institute for the Study of Societies and Knowledge, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in November 2017. The second examines the dependencies between the values of party members in Bulgaria, their ideological and political orientation, and their attitudes towards immigrants. It continues at the moment, so preliminary results of 60 in–depth interviews with members of left, right, nationalist and liberal political parties are presented. The main conclusions from the study of party members demonstrate a strong dependence of attitudes towards immigrants on political affiliation and an insignificant one on individual values. The representative study largely confirms the hypotheses about the relationship between some of the value categories of Schwarz's theoretical model and attitudes towards immigrants.