The dynamics of ethnocentrism in Europe. A comparison of enduring and emerging determinants of solidarity towards immigrants

Abstract

This article examines cross-national differences in solidarity towards immigrants in the EU. This concept of solidarity is operationalized through perceived ethnic threat vs. a positive view of multicultural society. The main argument of this article is that 'classical' enduring determinants (sociodemographic factors, subjective values and structural factors) are still able to explain ethnocentrism, but these factors are enriched and mediated by a cluster of five emerging explanatory factors which reflect societal malaise. These factors include dissatisfaction with society, political distrust, fear of social decline, lack of recognition, and social distrust. The thesis of societal malaise as a powerful concept to explain contemporary restrictions of macro-solidarity is tested with a Multiple-Group Structural Equation Model using data from 21 countries of the European Social Survey (wave 6 2012). A theory-guided approach is used to categorize European nations into six heterogeneous European areas. Statistical analyses reveal that new emerging factors of societal malaise indeed act as a mediator of classical explanations of ethnocentrism. From a comparative perspective, the determinants of macro-solidarity are strongly heterogeneous throughout the six European areas particularly between the East and West of the European Union.

Disentangling Societal Discontent and Intergroup Threat: Explaining Actions Towards Refugees and Towards the State

“…A second direction for future research is to corroborate the findings in a different context as this study was conducted in The Netherlands. We believe that the current pattern of results will be similar for many Western societies, because similar relationships between, for example, anti-refugee attitudes and societal discontent have been found in other (European) countries (Aschauer & Mayerl, 2019;Rooduijn, 2017). We therefore expect that across European countries, anti-refugee protests will be predicted by societal discontent and refugee intergroup threat.…”

COVID-19 and orientations towards solidarity: the cases of Spain, Hungary, and Romania

“…In recent years scholars have started analysing the stability of solidarity during crises and following such events. Aschauer and Mayerl (2019) found that social solidarity is likely to decrease during societal malaise, narrowing down the circle to which solidarity is confined. Other studies argued that periods of crisis are expanding the coverage of those worthy of solidarity and showed how crises can lead to increasing creativity in the manifestations of solidarity (Forno and Graziano 2019;Koos and Siebel 2019).…”

“…Solidarity has a long history as a key concept in the social sciences (Lahusen and Grasso 2018a;Koos 2019) and in the European history, playing a significant role in the development of welfare states post-World War II, in the development and expansion of the European Union (EU) (Dragalov et al, 2016), being under scrutiny during recent societal crises (Aschauer and Mayerl 2019;Forno and Graziano 2019;Gerhards et al 2019;Koos 2019) and, even more recently, in Europe's response to the Corona crisis. After two decades of almost complete freedom of movement within the EU, the economic recession at the end of the 2000s and the Corona crisis have led to borders being reinvented.…”

Crises and the reconfiguration of solidarities in Europe – origins, scope, variations

“…Yet the effect of societal malaise is expected to vary with different welfare arrangements. Using survey data from 21 EU countries, Aschauer and Mayerl (2019) first show, that the perception of crisis decreases from the Southern and Eastern European countries to the Northern European countries. Next, using multi-group structural equation models the authors illustrate how societal malaise has a strong effect on exclusive social solidarity mediating the effect of structural, individual and socio-demographic determinants.…”

“…Fourthly, crises affect the scope of solidarity. Thus, as Aschauer and Mayerl (2019) have shown societal malaise leads to more exclusionary group boundaries. More generally, the perception of some societal malaise moderates the effect of socio-economic conditions for exclusionary solidarity.…”