Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T19:03:21.426Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

WHO OPPOSES IMMIGRATION?

Comparing German with North American Findings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2008

Thomas F. Pettigrew ,
Ulrich Wagner  and
Oliver Christ
Thomas F. Pettigrew*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Ulrich Wagner
Affiliation:
Institute for Social Psychology, Philipps University-Marburg
Oliver Christ
Affiliation:
Institute for Social Psychology, Philipps University-Marburgand Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence, University of Bielefeld
*
Professor Thomas F. Pettigrew, University of California, Santa Cruz, Social Sciences 2, Santa Cruz, CA 95064. E-mail: pettigr@ucsc.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Are the predictors of anti-immigration attitudes consistent across countries with diverse immigration histories and policies? We hypothesize that the key predictors of opposition to immigration are indeed relatively consistent across industrial nations. We test this hypothesis with two surveys using probability samples of German citizens. We then compare our findings with those obtained in recent studies of immigration opinions in Europe generally, and in two of the world's leading immigration-receiving nations: Canada and the United States. Striking similarities emerge in the findings across structural, demographic, contact, economic, political, personality, and threat predictors. Opposition to immigration is routinely found strongest among the older and less-educated segments of the population who live in areas with anti-immigration norms and little contact with immigrants. Anti-immigration attitudes also correlate with political conservatism and alienation, economic deprivation, and especially with authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and perceived collective threat.

Keywords

Immigration AttitudesGermanyCanadaUnited States
Type
STATE OF THE DISCIPLINE
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , Spring 2007 , pp. 19 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adorno, Theodor, Frenkel-Brunswik, Else, Levinson, Daniel, and Sanford, Nevitt (1950). The Authoritarian Personality. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Allport, Gordon (1954). The Nature of Prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Altemeyer, Bob (1988). Enemies of Freedom: Understanding Right-Wing Authoritarianism. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Altemeyer, Bob (1996). The Authoritarian Specter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Beaton, Ann, Tougas, Francine, Clayton, Susan, and Perrino, Andrea (2003). L'impact de valeurs conservatrices et de préjugés racistes sur l'ouverture à l'immigration [The Impact of Conservative Values and Racist Prejudices on the Openness to Immigration]. Revue Canadienne des Sciences du Comportement, 35(3): 229–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blake, Donald (2003). Environmental Determinants of Racial Attitudes among White Canadians. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 36(3): 491–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloemraad, Irene (2006). Becoming a Citizen: Incorporating Immigrants and Refugees in the United States and Canada. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Rupert and Hewstone, Miles (2005). An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Contact. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 37: 255–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, Peter and Gimpel, James (2000). Economic Insecurity, Prejudicial Stereotypes, Public Opinion on Immigration Policy. Political Science Quarterly, 115(2): 201–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canadian Council for Refugees (2005). Immigration to Canada—1979–2004. ⟨http://www.net/∼crr/immstats.html⟩ (accessed March 21, 2007).Google Scholar
Center for Immigration Studies (2001). Immigrants in the United States—2000: A Snapshot of America's Foreign-Born Population. ⟨http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/back101.html⟩ (accessed March 21, 2007).Google Scholar
Citrin, Jack, Green, Donald, Muste, Christopher, and Wong, Cara (1997). Public Opinion toward Immigration Reform: The Role of Economic Motivations. Journal of Politics, 59(3): 858–881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dixon, Jeffrey (2006). The Ties that Bind and Those that Don't: Toward Reconciling Group Threat and Contact Theories of Prejudice. Social Forces, 84(4): 2179–2204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dixon, Jeffrey and Rosenbaum, Michael (2004). Nice to Know You? Testing Contact, Cultural, and Group Threat Theories of Anti-Black and Anti-Hispanic Stereotypes. Social Science Quarterly, 85(2): 257–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dustmann, Christian and Preston, Ian (2001). Attitudes to Ethnic Minorities, Ethnic Context and Location Decisions. Economic Journal, 111(470): 353–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Espenshade, Thomas and Hempstead, Katherine (1996). Contemporary American Attitudes toward U.S. Immigration. International Migration Review, 30(2): 535–570.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Esses, Victoria, Dovidio, John, Jackson, Lynne, and Armstrong, Tamara (2001). The Immigration Dilemma: The Role of Perceived Group Competition, Ethnic Prejudice, and National Identity. Journal of Social Issues, 57(3): 389–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esses, Victoria, Wagner, Ulrich, Wolf, Carina, Preiser, Matthias, and Wilbur, Christopher J. (2006). Perceptions of National Identity and Attitudes toward Immigrants in Canada and Germany. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30(5): 653–669.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Federal Ministry of the Interior (2004). Migration to Germany—Immigration in the Past. ⟨http://www.zuwanderung.de/english/1_zeitstrahl.html⟩ (accessed January 15 2007).Google Scholar
Festinger, Leon and Kelley, Harold (1951). Changing Attitudes Through Social Contact. Ann Arbor, MI: Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Fetzer, Joel (2000a). Economic Self-Interest or Cultural Marginality: Anti-Immigration Sentiment and Nativist Political Movements in France, Germany and the U.S.A. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 26(1): 5–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fetzer, Joel (2000b). Public Attitudes toward Immigration in the United States, France, and Germany. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ha, Shang (2007). Multiracial Friendship Networks and Public Attitudes toward Immigration. Unpublished paper, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT.Google Scholar
Hayes, Bernadette and Dowds, Lizanne (2006). Social Contact, Cultural Marginality, or Economic Self-Interest? Attitudes towards Immigrants in Northern Ireland. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32(3): 455–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heitmeyer, Wilhelm (Ed.) (2002). Deutsche Zustande. Folge 1 [The German Situation. Part 1]. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Suhrkamp Verlag.Google Scholar
Heitmeyer, Wilhelm (Ed.) (2004). Deutsche Zustande. Folge 3 [The German Situation. Part 3]. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Suhrkamp Verlag.Google Scholar
Hood, M. V. III and Morris, Irvin (2000). Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? Racial/Ethnic Context and the Anglo Vote on Proposition 187. Social Science Quarterly, 81(1): 194–207.Google Scholar
Iacovetta, Franka (Ed.) (1998). A Nation of Immigrants: Women, Workers, and Communities in Canadian History, 1840s–1960s. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackman, Mary (1973). Education and Prejudice or Education and Response-Set? American Sociological Review, 38(3): 327–339.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jackson, James, Brown, Kendrick, Brown, Tony, and Marks, Bryant (2001). Contemporary Immigration Policy Orientations among Dominant-Group Members in Western Europe. Journal of Social Issues, 57(3): 431–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Lynne and Esses, Victoria (2000). Effects of Perceived Economic Competition in People's Willingness to Empower Immigrants. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 3(4): 419–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalin, Rudolf (1996). Ethnic Attitudes as a Function of Ethnic Presence. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 28(3): 171–179.Google Scholar
Kennedy, John (1964). A Nation of Immigrants. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Kessler, Alan and Freeman, Gary (2005). Public Opinion in the EU on Immigration from Outside the Community. Journal of Common Market Studies, 43(4): 825–850.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lapinski, John, Peltola, Pia, Shaw, Greg, and Yang, Alan (1997). The Polls—Trends: Immigrants and Immigration. Public Opinion Quarterly, 61(2): 356–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luedtke, Adam (2005). European Integration, Public Opinion, and Immigration Policy: Testing the Impact of National Identity. European Union Politics, 6(1): 83–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maddens, Bart, Billiet, Jaak, and Beerten, Roeland (2000). National Identity and the Attitude towards Foreigners in Multi-National States: The Case of Belgium. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 26(1): 45–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayda, Anna (2006). Who is Against Immigration? A Cross-Country Investigation of Individual Attitudes toward Immigrants. Review of Economics and Statistics, 88(3): 510–530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulder, Marlene and Krahn, Harvey (2005). Individual- and Community-Level Determinants of Support for Immigration and Cultural Diversity in Canada. Canadian Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 42(4): 421–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, Douglas (1996). Determinants of Canadian Attitudes toward Immigration: More than Just Racism? Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 28(3): 180–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pantoja, Adrian (2006). Against the Tide? Core American Values and Attitudes Toward U.S. Immigration Policy in the Mid-1990s. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32(3): 515–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pereira, Cicero, Vala, Jorge, and Ramos, Alice (2005). Racism, Threat Perception, and Opposition to Immigration in Europe. Würzburg, Germany: Paper presented at the Fourteenth Meeting of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology, July 19–23.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas (1997). Generalized Intergroup Contact Effects on Prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(2): 173–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas (1998). Intergroup Contact Theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49: 65–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pettigrew, Thomas (2000). Systematizing the Predictors of Prejudice. In Sears, David, Sidanius, Jim, and Bobo, Lawrence D. (Eds.), Racialized Politics: The Debate About Racism in America, pp. 280–301. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas (2001). Summing Up: Relative Deprivation as a Key Social Psychological Concept. In Walker, Iain and Smith, Heather (Eds.), Relative Deprivation: Specification, Development, and Integration, pp. 351–374. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas (2007). European Attitudes toward Immigrants. In Peacock, James and Thornton, Patricia (Eds.), Identity Matters: How Ethnic and Sectarian Allegiances Both Prevent and Promote Collective Violence, pp. 99–119. New York: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas and Campbell, Ernest (1960). Faubus and Segregation: An Analysis of Arkansas Voting. Public Opinion Quarterly, 24(3): 436–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas, Christ, Oliver, Wagner, Ulrich, Meertens, Roel, van Dick, Rolf, and Zick, Andreas (2007a). Relative Deprivation and Intergroup Prejudice. Journal of Social Issues, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas and Cramer, M. Richard (1959). The Demography of Desegregation. Journal of Social Issues, 15(4): 61–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas, Stellmacher, Jost, Christ, Oliver, and Wagner, Ulrich (2007b). Why Does Authoritarianism Predict Prejudice? The Mediators of a Global Phenomenon. Political Psychology, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas and Tropp, Linda (2006). A Meta-Analytic Test of Intergroup Contact Theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(5): 751–783.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pew Research Center (2006). America's Immigration Quandary: No Consensus on Immigration Problem or Proposed Fixes. Washington, DC. ⟨http://www.pewhispanic.org/files/reports/63.pdf⟩ (accessed March 21, 2007).Google Scholar
Preacher, Kristopher and Leonardelli, Geoffrey (2006). Calculation for the Sobel Test: An Interactive Calculation Tool for Mediation Tests. ⟨http://www.psych.ku.edu/preacher/sobel/sobel.htm⟩ (accessed March 21, 2007).Google Scholar
Republikaner (1990). Die Republikaner: Parteiprogramm [The Repubikaner Party Program]. Bonn, Germany: Der Bundesgesellschaftsstelle der Republikaner.Google Scholar
Rohmann, Anette, Florack, Arnd, and Piontkowski, Ursula (2006). The Role of Discordant Acculturation Attitudes in Perceived Threat: An Analysis of Host and Immigrant Attitudes in Germany. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30(6): 683–702.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schafer, Joseph and Graham, John (2002). Missing Data: Our View of the State of the Art. Psychological Methods, 7(2): 147–177.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Short, Robert (2004). Justice, Politics, and Prejudice Regarding Immigration Attitudes. Current Research in Social Psychology, 9(14): 193–208. ⟨http://www.uiowa.edu/∼grpproc/crisp/crisp.9.14.html⟩ (accessed March 21, 2007).Google Scholar
Sidanius, Jim and Pratto, Felicia (1999). Social Dominance: An Intergroup Theory of Social Hierarchy and Oppression. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sobel, Michael (1982). Asymptotic Intervals for Indirect Effects in Structural Equation Models. Sociological Methodology, 13: 290–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southwell, Priscilla and Everest, Marcy Jean (1998). The Electoral Consequences of Alienation: Non-Voting and Protest Voting in the 1992 Presidential Race. Social Science Journal, 35(1): 43–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, Robert, Post, Stephanie, and Rinden, Allison (2000). Reconciling Context and Contact Effects on Racial Attitudes. Political Research Quarterly, 53(2): 285–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephan, Walter and Stephan, Cookie (1985). Intergroup Anxiety. Journal of Social Issues, 41(3): 157–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, Henri (Ed.) (1982). Social Identity and Intergroup Relations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Marylee (1998). How White Attitudes Vary with the Racial Composition of Local Populations: Numbers Count. American Sociological Review, 63(4): 512–535.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, Ulrich, Christ, Oliver, Pettigrew, Thomas F., Stellmacher, Jost, and Wolf, Carina (2006). Prejudice and Minority Proportion: Contact Instead of Threat Effects. Social Psychology Quarterly, 69: 380–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, Ulrich and van Dick, Rolf (2001). Fremdenfeindlichkeit in der Mitter der Gesellschaft: Phänomenbeschreibung, Ursachen, Gegenmaßnahmen [Hostility toward Foreigners in the Midst of Society: Description of the Phenomenon, Causes, and Countermeasures]. Zeitschrift für Politische Psychologie, 9: 41–54.Google Scholar
Wagner, Ulrich and Zick, Andreas (1995). The Relation of Formal Education to Ethnic Prejudice: Its Reliability, Validity, and Explanation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 25(1): 41–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Iain and Pettigrew, Thomas (1984). Relative Deprivation Theory: An Overview and Conceptual Critique. British Journal of Social Psychology, 23: 301–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Iain and Smith, Heather (Eds.) (2001). Relative Deprivation: Specification, Development, and Integration. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, Colleen and Masgoret, Anne-Marie (2006). An Integrative Model of Attitudes toward Immigrants. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30(6): 671–682.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zick, Andreas, Wolf, Carina, Küpper, Beate, Davidov, Eldad, Schmidt, Peter, and Heitmeyer, Wilhelm (2007). The Syndrome of Group-Focused Enmity: The Interrelation of Prejudices Tested with Multiple Cross-Sectional and Panel Data. Journal of Social Issues, forthcoming.Google Scholar