Higher tolerance amongst Lithuanians

VILNIUS- Lithuanian would rather work with the Roma, people who have overcome adependency of sorts or those of a different sexual orientation than communicatewith them in their personal lives.

According to data of a survey conducted by Vilmoruspollster, seven out of ten Lithuanian inhabitants wouldn't mind having membersof the Roma community, people that have overcome a dependency of sorts or thosewith a non-traditional sexual orientation as colleagues. Another 6 out 10wouldn't mind if their colleague would have been previously incarcerated or hadpsychological disorders.

However, seven out of ten of the country's inhabitants would avoid dealing withmembers of the Roma community, people that have overcome a dependency of sortsor those with a non-traditional sexual orientation in any other than a worksetting. People are more tolerant with regards to disabled persons, only twoout of ten wouldn't one to live alongside a person, who has a physicaldisability.

Polled inhabitants more so than employers are prone to trust the skills ofrepresentatives of aforementioned social groups, with 75 company managershaving expressed an opinion that such people wouldn't manage to cope with theirjob, however only 25 percent of polled inhabitants held the same attitude.

When asked whether they would mind working with people from social risk groups,respondents most often said they would feel uneasy (48 percent), or wouldn'tknow how to behave in the face of such a colleague (31 percent). For thesereasons, more than 60 percent of the polled would rather not communicate withthem at all, and three out of ten would seek out additional information.

Over 1,000 Lithuanian inhabitants from all districts of the country weresurveyed in the framework of this poll, commissioned by the Social Security andLabor Ministry, the managing authority for the European Community InitiativeEQUAL.