Framing Attitudes Towards Immigrants in Europe: When Competition Does Not Matter

Abstract

The socio-economic conditions of native populations and axioms derived from ethnic competition theory have often been used to account for xenophobic attitudes. By contrast, much less research has been conducted on the impact of ideological structures on the formation of attitudes towards immigration. This paper aims to fill this gap by suggesting that broad ideological structures in terms of leftÁright self-placements are important cognitive determinants of attitudes towards migrants when the direct experience of competition for scarce resources is lower. It shows that political preferences structure attitudes when the socio-economic vulnerability of citizens and geographical contexts are low enough for migrants not to be framed as a direct threat. Economic vulnerability is thus theorised to overcome the resistance of ideological predispositions. The findings are obtained through hierarchical linear models using the 2002Á03 European Social Survey.

Attitudes towards Immigrant Workers and Asylum Seekers in Eastern Croatia: Dimensions, Determinants and Differences

“…Respondents who place themselves more towards the right of the political spectrum express more negative attitudes towards both target groups and perceive them as a greater threat. This finding is also consistent with other research (Rustenbach, 2010;Pardos-Prado, 2011;Scheepers, Gijsberts and Coenders, 2002;Semyonov, Raijman and Gorodzeisky, 2008) and can be explained within the theory of right-wing authoritarianism, to which tendencies are ascribed to expressing prejudice and negative attitudes toward "out-groups" to motivational interests connected to group cohesion, stability and security (Altemeyer, 2006).…”

“…Pratto et al, 1994;Mehrabian, 1996;Bardy and Schwartz, 2003;Altemeyer, 2006;and Pardos-Prado, 2011) served as the basis for the final hypothesis:…”

Intergenerational Correlations of Extreme Right‐Wing Party Preferences and Attitudes toward Immigration

“…If the adult children (their parents) ever reported being very concerned about immigration to Germany, the dependent (explanatory) variable equals one, and is zero otherwise. 8 The main reason for studying the intergenerational transmission in far right-wing attitudes together with concerns about immigration comes from the political science literature that has identified a strong relationship between extreme right-wing preferences (i.e., far right-wing voting) and individuals' immigration sentiments (Lubbers et al, 2002;Arzheimer, 2009;Pardos-Prado, 2011). In the context of extreme right-wing parties in Europe, Arzheimer (2009, p. 259) writes: "[I]ts members are reasonably distinct from the mainstream or established right and share a number of ideological features, in particular their concern about immigration, which swiftly became the single most important issue for these parties."…”

“…Several empirical studies point to an important relationship between individuals' anti‐foreign sentiments and their affinity toward far right‐wing parties (Lubbers et al ., ; Arzheimer, , ; Pardos‐Prado, ).…”

Crisis económica y sentimiento antinmigrante: el caso de Andalucía

“…However, bearing in mind the dramatic levels of unemployment, their animosity-reducing capacities cannot be taken for granted; for example, the impact of leftist ideology might fade during an economic crisis (see Pardos-Prado, 2011). In addition to testing the enmity-containing properties of dispositional and situational factors in objectively inauspicious circumstances, this study examines whether their impact is affected by subjective threat perceptions.…”