The impact of populism on foreign student attitudes during the COVID-19 crisis in Estonia: a comparison of the European Union and third-country nationals

Abstract

At the end of 2019, the first COVID-19 case was discovered in China. By the beginning of the following year, as a result of its rapid expansion, the virus had spread to practically every country in the world, including Estonia. In the spring of 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. In addition to the fear and uncertainty caused by the virus's wide growth, the local conservative party in Estonia began to increase its influence among the public. By the May of 2020, the support for the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) accounted for almost 22% of the country's population. Quite remarkable is that in July 2021, support for this party was already around 25% (Kantar Emor, 2022). The objective of this thesis was to find out whether and how significantly the rise in populism affected the attitudes of foreign students living in Estonia. As attitudes are largely shaped by the hospitality of the local residents, interaction with the locals, adaptation, discrimination, or general experience, the following empirical research was designed accordingly. To analyze the potential influences on students’ attitudes, the author made a comparison with 10 international students living in the European Union member states and another 10 international students living outside of the European Union. In addition, the author also based her comparison on the years when foreign students started studying in Estonia. The thesis focused on the years 2018-2021, allowing the researcher to compare attitudes before and after the pandemic. This was significant in evaluating the extent to which the rise in populism during the COVID-19 crisis influenced international students' attitudes. The research was carried out utilizing a qualitative approach, using 20 in-depth interviews. The findings of the thesis reveal that while increased populism during the Coronavirus Crisis in Estonia did not have any systematic effects on international students arriving from the member states of the European Union, it did influence the attitudes of students originally from countries outside of the EU. Surprisingly, there were also a considerable proportion of secondary issues such as language difficulties or deficiencies in the Estonian medical system, which had effects on both comparable target groups.