Xenophobia and Contact: European Attitudes toward Immigrants

Seth JollySyracuse University

Friday the 13th2013

A Changed Europe

Switzerland’s SVP

Boiling Points

Motivating Questions

• Racial Attitudes/Xenophobia

• Demographic change

• Economic threat

Contact Theory

Intergroup contact ➔ peaceful relations & reduced animosity

US White Attitudes toward Black Soldiers

0

15

30

45

60

Disli

ke in

tegr

atio

n

No black soldiers in platoonBlack solders in division, not same regimentBlack soldiers in same regiment, not companyBlack soldiers in company

Group Threat

• If perceived group threat

• contact ➔ antipathy

Mixed Empirical Results

• Radical Right support and foreign-born population.

• Cross-national studies of xenophobia

Hypothesis: Following the contact theory (threat theory), as local immigrant populations increase, xenophobic or racist attitudes will decrease (increase).

Data• Three datasets

• 2002 French National Election Study (FNES)

• 1999 French census• Eurostat REGIO database

• Unit of Analysis

• Individuals nested in departments

Xenophobia scale

Xenophobia[4.96,7.53](7.53,8.555](8.555,9.2](9.2,10.69]No data

Sources: French electoral panel, 2002 & INSEE Recensement de la population, 1999

Independent Variables• Individual

• Ideology• Party cue• SES• Perceptions of economic threat

• Department

• Unemployment rate• Foreign-born population

Immigration

Foreign share[.61,1.77](1.77,3.38](3.38,4.56](4.56,6](6,18.72]

Source: INSEE Recensement de la population, 1999

Patterns

Xenophobia Foreign Population

Xenophobia[4.96,7.53](7.53,8.555](8.555,9.2](9.2,10.69]No data

Sources: French electoral panel, 2002 & INSEE Recensement de la population, 1999

Foreign share[.61,1.77](1.77,3.38](3.38,4.56](4.56,6](6,18.72]

Source: INSEE Recensement de la population, 1999

HLM. XenophobiaExplanatory Variable Coe!cientCoe!cientL/R Ideology 0.50 ***Party Cue 1.13Muslim -3.10 **Education > High School -2.13 **Foreign Pop Share, Dept -0.09 **Unemployment Rate, Dept 0.06Additional controls, random e"ects includedAdditional controls, random e"ects includedAdditional controls, random e"ects included

N = 3,226 N(Groups) = 78 N = 3,226 N(Groups) = 78 N = 3,226 N(Groups) = 78

E!ect of foreign population

5

6

7

8

9

10

Pred

icted

val

ues f

or x

enop

hobi

a

5 10 150 20Department foreign population share

United in Diversity

Discussion

• In France, higher numbers of foreign-born population ≈ less xenophobia

• Public attitudes matter

• Need to extend to more countries