Direct and indirect predictors of opposition to immigration in Europe: individual values, cultural values, and symbolic threat

ABSTRACT The current study examines the following questions: (1) the extent to which individual basic human values are linked with attitudes towards immigration; (2) whether symbolic threat by immigration mediates this relation; and (3) whether cultural values moderate the relations between individual values, threat, and attitudes towards immigration. The empirical analysis relies on the 2014/2015 data from the immigration module of the European Social Survey (ESS) for West and East European countries. We find that universalistic individuals expressed lower threat due to immigration and higher support of immigration while conservative individuals displayed the opposite pattern. Symbolic threat mediated the association between values and immigration attitudes, but in most countries the mediation was partial. The associations between values, symbolic threat, and attitudes towards immigration were stronger in countries characterised by higher levels of intellectual and affective autonomy and weaker in countries characterised by higher levels of cultural embeddedness. The findings provide support for the centrality of human values in the formation of threat and attitudes towards immigration.

[1]  M. Semyonov,et al.  Perceptions and misperceptions: actual size, perceived size and opposition to immigration in European societies , 2020, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

[2]  E. Davidov,et al.  What factors explain anti-Muslim prejudice? An assessment of the effects of Muslim population size, institutional characteristics and immigration-related media claims , 2020, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

[3]  M. Hewstone,et al.  When integration policies shape the impact of intergroup contact on threat perceptions: a multilevel study across 20 European countries , 2020, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

[4]  C. Meeusen,et al.  Differentiated Threat and the Genesis of Prejudice: Group-Specific Antecedents of Homonegativity, Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, and Anti-Immigrant Attitudes , 2019 .

[5]  Anthony F. Heath,et al.  Contested boundaries: consensus and dissensus in European attitudes to immigration , 2019, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

[6]  Anthony F. Heath,et al.  Contested terrain: explaining divergent patterns of public opinion towards immigration within Europe , 2019, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

[7]  Eldad Davidov,et al.  Testing for Approximate Measurement Invariance of Human Values in the European Social Survey , 2018 .

[8]  D. FitzGerald,et al.  The Sociology of Refugee Migration , 2018, Annual Review of Sociology.

[9]  E. Davidov,et al.  Modeling multiple-country repeated cross-sections. A societal growth curve model for studying the effect of the economic crisis on perceived ethnic threat , 2018 .

[10]  R. Inglehart.  Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society , 2018 .

[11]  Eldad Davidov,et al.  The cross-country measurement comparability in the immigration module of the European Social Survey 2014-15 , 2018 .

[12]  M. Semyonov,et al.  The dynamic relations between economic conditions and anti-immigrant sentiment: A natural experiment in times of the European economic crisis , 2017 .

[13]  E. Davidov,et al.  Universalism, conservation and attitudes toward minority groups. , 2016, Social science research.

[14]  M. Marmot,et al.  Social determinants of health equity. , 2014, American journal of public health.

[15]  P. Schmidt,et al.  Measurement Equivalence in Cross-National Research , 2014 .

[16]  Jens Hainmueller,et al.  Public Attitudes toward Immigration , 2014 .

[17]  Marcel Lubbers,et al.  Euro-scepticism and radical right-wing voting in Europe, 2002–2008: Social cleavages, socio-political attitudes and contextual characteristics determining voting for the radical right , 2013 .

[18]  E. Davidov,et al.  Immigrant Integration policies and perceived Group Threat: A Multilevel Study of 27 Western and Eastern European Countries. , 2013, Social science research.

[19]  Eldad Davidov,et al.  Contextual Sources of Perceived Group Threat: Negative Immigration-Related News Reports, Immigrant Group Size and their Interaction, Spain 1996–2007 , 2013 .

[20]  E. Davidov,et al.  Explaining Attitudes Towards Immigration Policies in European Countries: The Role of Human Values , 2012 .

[21]  Anastasia Gorodzeisky,et al.  Who are the Europeans that Europeans prefer? Economic conditions and exclusionary views toward European immigrants , 2011 .

[22]  Alin M. Ceobanu,et al.  Comparative Analyses of Public Attitudes Toward Immigrants and Immigration Using Multinational Survey Data: A Review of Theories and Research , 2010 .

[23]  E. Davidov,et al.  Changing attitudes toward immigration in Europe, 2002-2007: a dynamic group conflict theory approach. , 2009, Social science research.

[24]  Kai Arzheimer.  Contextual Factors and the Extreme Right Vote in Western Europe, 1980–2002 , 2009 .

[25]  P. Schmidt,et al.  Values and Support for Immigration : A Cross-Country Comparison , 2008 .

[26]  S. Schwartz,et al.  Bringing Values Back In The Adequacy of the European Social Survey to Measure Values in 20 Countries , 2008 .

[27]  P. Schmidt,et al.  What Does a Nation Owe Non-Citizens? , 2008 .

[28]  Eldad Davidov,et al.  A cross-country and cross-time comparison of the human values measurements with the second round of the European Social Survey , 2008 .

[29]  M. Semyonov,et al.  Foreigners' Impact on European Societies , 2008 .

[30]  Silke L. Schneider.  Anti-Immigrant Attitudes in Europe: Outgroup Size and Perceived Ethnic Threat , 2007 .

[31]  Shalom H. Schwartz.  Les valeurs de base de la personne : théorie, mesures et applications , 2006 .

[32]  M. Semyonov,et al.  The Rise of Anti-foreigner Sentiment in European Societies, 1988-2000 , 2006 .

[33]  Dianne M. Finkelstein,et al.  A Beginner's Guide to Structural Equation Modeling , 2005, Technometrics.

[34]  M. Semyonov,et al.  Perceived threat and exclusionary attitudes towards foreign workers in Israel , 2004 .

[35]  Joseph A. Cote,et al.  Multicollinearity and Measurement Error in Structural Equation Models: Implications for Theory Testing , 2004 .

[36]  J. Piliavin,et al.  Values: Reviving a Dormant Concept , 2004 .

[37]  H. Marsh,et al.  In Search of Golden Rules: Comment on Hypothesis-Testing Approaches to Setting Cutoff Values for Fit Indexes and Dangers in Overgeneralizing Hu and Bentler's (1999) Findings , 2004 .

[38]  R. Kunovich,et al.  Social structural position and prejudice: an exploration of cross-national differences in regression slopes , 2004 .

[39]  Markus Prior,et al.  Predisposing Factors and Situational Triggers: Exclusionary Reactions to Immigrant Minorities , 2004, American Political Science Review.

[40]  Howard E. Aldrich,et al.  The pervasive effects of family on entrepreneurship: toward a family embeddedness perspective , 2003 .

[41]  P. Schmidt,et al.  Do Foreigners Deserve Rights? Determinants of Public Views Towards Foreigners in Germany and Israel , 2003 .

[42]  P. Scheepers,et al.  The Effect of Education on Nationalism and Ethnic Exclusionism: An International Comparison , 2003 .

[43]  J. Schafer,et al.  Missing data: our view of the state of the art. , 2002, Psychological methods.

[44]  P. Scheepers,et al.  Ethnic Exclusionism in European Countries. Public Opposition to Civil Rights for Legal Migrants as a Response to Perceived Ethnic Threat , 2002 .

[45]  Joel S. Fetzer.  Economic self-interest or cultural marginality? Anti-immigration sentiment and nativist political movements in France, Germany and the USA , 2000 .

[46]  J. Steenkamp,et al.  Assessing Measurement Invariance in Cross-National Consumer Research , 1998 .

[47]  Shalom H. Schwartz,et al.  Value priorities and readiness for out-group social contact. , 1995 .

[48]  Lincoln Quillian.  Prejudice as a response to perceived group threat: population composition and anti-immigrant and racial prejudice in Europe , 1995 .

[49]  R. P. McDonald,et al.  Structural Equations with Latent Variables , 1989 .

[50]  M. Rokeach.  The Nature Of Human Values , 1974 .

[51]  Hubert M. Blalock,et al.  Toward a Theory of Minority Group Relations , 1973 .

[52]  K. Jöreskog.  Simultaneous factor analysis in several populations , 1971 .

[53]  H. Blumer.  Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position , 1958 .

[54]  P. Schmidt,et al.  The Comparability of Measurements of Attitudes Toward Immigration in the European Social Survey: Exact Versus Approximate Measurement Equivalence , 2014 .

[55]  Davidov Eldad,et al.  Social location and value priorities. A European-wide comparison of the relation between social-structural variables and human values , 2012 .

[56]  S. Schwartz.  Value orientations: Measurement, antecedents and consequences across nations. , 2007 .

[57]  S. Schwartz.  A Theory Of Cultural Value Orientations: Explication And Applications , 2006 .

[58]  T. Brown,et al.  Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Applied Research , 2006 .

[59]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .

[60]  L. Bobo,et al.  Perceptions of racial group competition: Extending Blumer's theory of group position to a multiracial social context , 1996 .

[61]  S. Schwartz.  Are There Universal Aspects in the Structure and Contents of Human Values , 1994 .

[62]  Hubert M. Blalock,et al.  Toward a Theory of Minority-Group Relations , 1967 .