Dutch more aware and skeptical of discrimination: planning office

People in the Netherlands have a "relatively large awareness" about discrimination, according to social and cultural planning office SCP's quarterly report. At the same time, there is also a lot of skepticism about discrimination - many respondents feel that people claim discrimination too quickly and that some groups are hyper-sensitive about the topic, ANP reports.

Every quarter the SCP surveys respondents about their political views and their views on social issues for its Continual Research on Civil Perspective. Discrimination stood central for the second quarter's survey.

Over two-thirds of Dutch, 68 percent, are against discrimination. But a slightly larger group of 72 percent think that in some cases people are too quick to shout discrimination. 22 percent of respondents said that they are sometimes discriminated against. People with higher levels of education and left-wing voters are more outspoken against discrimination, 76 percent and 83 percent respectively say they are against it.

The respondents also said that they find discrimination more terrible when it affects themselves or the people they know, than when it involves strangers.

Over half, 54 percent, said they feel that there is more discrimination now than there was 20 years ago. They attribute this to the fact that minority groups now have more visibility, people are more open about the sexual orientation, for example. According to the respondents, the groups that face the most discrimination in the Netherlands are LGBT people, ethnic minorities, Muslims and people with disabilities.