What Explains European Attitudes Towards Ethnic Discrimination?

What explains variations in European public opinion about discrimination? The answer is important for national-level integration strategies, for understanding the challenge facing the European Union's Racial Equality Directive (which was passed in 2000 and transposed into national law over the next five years), and for understanding one the most challenging sociopolitical issues in Europe more generally. In February and March of 2008, Eurobarometer 69.1 asked a series of questions on ethnic discrimination. The specific research question that I am interested in addressing is: are 'background characteristics' (e.g. ideology, gender, minority status, religion, nationality, etc) or 'personal experiences' with ethnic discrimination more important for explaining (1) perceived levels of discrimination in the respondent's member state and (2) support for equal opportunity measures? By 'personal experience' I am referring to whether or not the respondent (a) has been personally discriminated against on ethnic grounds, (b) has witnessed ethnic discrimination, or (c) has friends of other ethnicities. I argue that there is strong evidence of the salience of the 'personal experience' hypothesis, though the effect is not uniform on (1) and (2). There is also evidence of the 'background characteristics' hypothesis, but, I show that, with the exception of nationality, the 'background' effects are not as strong as the 'personal experience' effects