The issue where the answers of the Slovenian students were deeply below the international average in 1999 CIVED study was the attitude toward immigrants. Their answers had shown that the Slovenian students did not really have a negative attitude toward immigrants – their general attitude toward immigrants was positive, yet substantially less positive than the international average. The ICCS study also included a string of questions concerning immigrants. The Slovenian students were in the year 2009 noticeably more positively inclined toward immigrants than in the year 1999. This was also evident through a comparison at the international level. The Slovenian students' perception of the openness of the classroom climate in the CIVED study (1999) also significantly differed from the perception of the students elsewhere around the world. And in the ICCS study in 2009, the Slovenian students had again reported a substantial increase in the level of classroom climate openness. Since the change in relation to immigrants, that is increased openness in relation to the external other, coincided with the change in the perception of the openness of the classroom climate, the paper will try to examine the nature and context of this coincidence.