Page - 55 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Heinz Bonfadelli | Media Use of Ethnic Minority Youth 55 4.2 Values, political interest and occupational expectations When asked about the most important values for living a comfortable life, about 97% of the students mentioned “good friends”. The same importance was attributed to the item “not to be unemployed”. About 92% of the young people considered a good education and an interesting job important for leading a rewarding life. Here, there were no differences between Swiss students and students from a migration background. As to the items “to have a lot of money” and “to believe in something”, only 35% and 45%, respectively, of the young Swiss as opposed to about 60% and 70%, respectively, of the youths from a migrant background ranked these as important. Noteworthy with respect to all questions regarding attitudes is that the answers of adolescents of Italian origin are similar to those of the Swiss young people, whereas the responses of adolescents from other countries of origin differ to a greater extent. % Swiss Migrants Italy Turkey Ex-Yugoslavia Yes, quite sure 35 29 32 30 26 Yes, maybe 55 58 56 56 61 No, probably not 9 11 10 13 11 No, certainly not 1 2 2 1 2 Note: Switzerland: N=499; Migrants: N=969; Italy: N=166; Turkey: N=136; Ex-Yugoslavia: N=350. Table 5: Do You Believe That You Can Achieve Your Own Occupational Goals? About 20% of the young people claim to have no interest in political affairs; 24% of the Swiss adolescents and 33% of those from a migration background mention that Swiss politics are important. With respect to the politics of the country of origin or of other countries, the interest of students from a migration background is even stronger: 43% and 44%, respectively, regard these matters as significant, whereas only 17% of Swiss youths consider politics of other countries to be important. There is a significant connection between education and political interest in the Swiss segment, whereas this is not the case in the segment from a migration background. Political interest also depends on media use: Young people who frequently read (newspapers and/or books) are politically more interested. Future occupational chances and opportunities as appraised by the young immigrants are quite similar to the assessments of Swiss adolescents. Most of the students think they will find a satisfying job. This is most certainly a