Guarding the gates of Europe: A typological analysis of immigration attitudes across 21 countries

Abstract

W ith data from the European Social Survey (N 5 36,602), individual patterns of three immigration attitudes, referred to as gatekeeping attitudes, were investigated within and across 21 European national contexts. Gatekeeping attitudes, akin to blatant and subtle forms of xenophobia, designate the level of endorsement of different admission standards set for immigrants entering European countries, as well as of expulsion criteria for immigrants transgressing norms and laws. A K-means cluster analysis, performed on national majority members' scores of endorsement of individual (e.g., language and working skills) and categorical (e.g., skin colour, religion) entry criteria and individual expulsion criteria (e.g., criminal act, long-term unemployment), yielded a typology of three constrained combinations of these dimensions. Strict gatekeepers favoured all criteria, lenient gatekeepers opposed all criteria, whereas individualist gatekeepers favoured individual and opposed categorical criteria. Membership in typology groups was predicted with a generalized prejudiced attitude construct, social status, and personal contact with immigrants. Lenient gatekeepers were less homophobic, had a higher education level, felt financially less vulnerable, and had more immigrant friends than strict gatekeepers. Individualist gatekeepers held an intermediate position. Variability was observed in all countries, despite the prevalence of a typology group within a given country. Strict gatekeepers were common among participants from Southern and Eastern European nations, lenient gatekeepers in Scandinavian countries, and individualist gatekeepers in Western European countries. Cross-national differences are discussed in light of European immigration history and policies.L es données d'une enquête sociale européenne (N 5 36,602) ont permis d'étudier les patrons individuels de trois attitudes face à l'immigration, identifiées comme des «attitudes gardiennes», auprès de 21 contextes européens nationaux. Les attitudes gardiennes, analogues à des formes flagrantes et subtiles de xénophobie, reflètent le niveau d'acceptation des différentes normes d'admission établies pour les immigrants entrant dans les pays européens, tout comme pour les critères d'expulsion pour les immigrants transgressant les normes et lois. Une analyse de classification à partir des moyennes (K-means cluster) a été menée sur les scores des membres de la majorité nationale relativement à leur soutien des critères d'entrée individuels (p. ex., langue, compétenece de travail) et catégoriels (p. ex., couleur de la peau, religion) et des critères d'expulsion individuels (p. ex., acte criminel, chô mage prolongé). Les résultats ont dementré une typologie comprenant trois combinaisons de ces dimensions: les gardiens stricts favorisaient tous les critères, les gardiens indulgents s'apposaient à tous les critères, tandis que les gardiens individualistes favorisaient les critères individuels tout en s'opposant aux critères catégoriels. L'appartenance à un de ces groupes était p...

Inclusiveness as Construction of Open Identity: How Social Relationships Affect Attitudes Towards Immigrants in European Societies

“…Multi-level regression methods are often used to identify context-level variables at country level. Few authors explain context variations through different cross-country comparative techniques (O'Rourke and Sinnott 2006;Green 2007;Bail 2008;Davidov et al 2008). Whether the theoretical framework points at the interaction between the national level and the individual level, it is generally accepted to treat countries at the extent of other social groups to identify contextual sources of prejudice.…”

Keeping the vermin out: Perceived disease threat and ideological orientations as predictors of exclusionary immigration attitudes

“…Each of them reflected in different ways the demarcation of national group boundaries and the exclusion of immigrants and foreigners from within these boundaries (Pehrson & Green, in press). First, we measured the support for assimilationist entry criteria for immigrants (Green, 2007(Green, , 2009), which represents a protective and restrictive attitude which grants entry to Switzerland only to those who conform to a set of attributes defining 'appropriate' immigrants (e.g. educational qualifications, working skills or the readiness to adopt the way of life and values of the host culture).…”

Who Can Enter? A Multilevel Analysis on Public Support for Immigration Criteria across 20 European Countries

“…Green (2007) demonstrated with exploratory and confi rmatory factor analyses that acquired and ascribed immigration criteria loaded on two factors in the ESS data set. However, the tested model also included another factor.…”

“…However, support for acquired criteria can presumably also be driven by pluralistic or multicultural ideologies; in this case, immigrants are expected to adopt public values of the host country, while the maintenance of their cultural distinctiveness is recognized or even encouraged. Yet support for ascribed and for acquired criteria have both been shown to relate to negative attitudes towards immigrants such as perceiving stopping immigration as a means to reduce tensions in the country, and reluctance to have a person of a different ethnicity as one's boss (see Green, 2007). Overall, support for acquired criteria should nevertheless be greater than support for ascribed criteria because it is a more normative and acceptable stance in line with widespread meritocratic values, and does not imply an explicit manifestation of xenophobia.…”

“…Citizens of host countries can agree more or less with these policies. In the investigation of the role of threat on support for immigration criteria among host country citizens, an important distinction concerns acquired and ascribed criteria (Green, 2007). Acquired immigration criteria include individual competence and attitudes that can facilitate adaptation to the host country, such as having particular working skills or endorsement of core values of the host country.…”