What does it take for 'Them' to become part of 'Us'. Acceptance of immigrants in EU countries

The aim of this dissertation is to examine the relationship between national identification and reactions towards immigrants. More specifically, in several countries of the European Union (EU) we investigate how national identification by young members of the national majority group relates to their reactions towards the most devalued non-EU immigrant group in their country. Our main research question is: When and how is stronger national identification associated with more negative reactions towards immigrants? Our main explanatory focus is on the way in which citizenship is represented (i.e., the criteria someone needs to fulfill to be regarded as a citizen). Citizenship representations can be seen as an important part of the content of national identity and previous studies have shown that national identity content may affect the relationship between national identification and reactions towards immigrants. While some representations of citizenship exclude immigrants (categorizing them as members of ethnic or cultural outgroups), citizenship can also be represented in such a way that immigrants are included as fellow citizens. These different ways of representing citizenship may affect the outcome of national identification on reactions towards immigrants. In this dissertation we consider the classic ethnic and civic citizenship representations and also investigate the possibility of a distinct cultural representation. We take an intergroup relations perspective and apply a cross-national comparative approach in order to establish the construct validity of ethnic, civic, and cultural citizenship representations and to replicate theoretical associations of national identification with reactions towards immigrants across countries with varying citizenship and immigration regimes. To this end, we collected cross-national survey data among high school students in collaboration with colleagues in seven EU countries (i.e., Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden). The empirical findings of this dissertation are presented in four co-authored research articles (chapters 2-5), preceded by an introduction (chapter 1), which gives a general overview of the total research project, and followed by the main conclusions (chapter 6). Chapter 2 focuses on the relationships between Flemish national identification, Flemings# preferred way of representing citizenship (i.e., ethnic or civic), and their perception of how citizenship is commonly represented by fellow Flemings. It was found that national identification and a preference for a more ethnic (less civic) citizenship representation reinforce each other over time. In addition, national identification depends on the match between preferred and perceived citizenship representations. National identification is stronger when people perceive citizenship to be commonly represented in the same way as they prefer to represent it. Chapter 3 examined cross-nationally whether a distinct cultural citizenship representation exists besides the ethnic and civic representations. First-time evidence was found for a distinct cultural representation. Furthermore, the three-factor model of citizenship representations (i.e., ethnic, civic, and cultural factors) was partially metric invariant across countries. When the three citizenship representations were analyzed simultaneously, in relation to multiculturalism and exclusion attitudes, the ethnic representation was no longer significantly related to these attitudes (despite significant correlations). This suggests that civic and cultural citizenship representations are more relevant in explaining reactions towards immigrants than the ethnic representation. The civic representation related to positive attitudes towards immigrants, while, in contrast to expectations derived from the citizenship literature, the cultural representation related to negative attitudes. Chapter 4 studied citizenship representations in relation to migration policy preferences. Only civic and cultural representations were robustly related to these preferences. The civic representation related to a preference for more inclusive migration policies, while the cultural representation related to a preference for more restrictive policies. Chapter 5 investigated mediation and moderation by citizenship representations, of the relationship between national identification and perceived threat posed by immigrants. In all countries, the evidence pointed overwhelmingly in the direction of mediation. Stronger national identification was associated with a more cultural citizenship representation, which, in turn, related to higher perceived threat. Stronger national identification was also associated with a less civic citizenship representation, which, in turn, related to lower perceived threat. To summarize, we found that national identification and citizenship representations reinforce each other over time and that national identification also depends on the match between preferred and perceived citizenship representations. We developed partially metric invariant measurement scales for citizenship representations. We obtained cross-national evidence of a distinct cultural representation of citizenship and demonstrated that this representation relates to negative rather than positive reactions towards immigrants. We argued and found that an ethnic citizenship representation has become less relevant in explaining reactions towards immigrants than civic and cultural representations. Finally, we obtained cross-national evidence for mediation rather than moderation by citizenship representations, of the relationship between national identification and perceived threat posed by immigrants. Overall, the studies in this dissertation contribute to the literature on national identification and citizenship. The wider implications of our findings, as well as some limitations of our empirical studies and suggestions for future research, are summarized in chapter 6.status: publishe