Economic forces and anti-immigrant attitudes in Western Europe: A paradox in search of an explanation

Patterns of Prejudice

Volumn 39, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 60-74

  O'Connell, Michael ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Anti immigrant attitudes; Economic determinism; Economic hardship; Materialism; Populism; Survey data

Indexed keywords

EID: 16244373939     PISSN: 0031322X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00313220500045287     Document Type: Article

References (33)

1. The author would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for providing valuable comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
2. T. Towles-Schwen and R. H. Fazio, 'On the origins of racial attitudes: correlates of childhood experiences', Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 27, 2001, 162-75.
3. T. Adorno, E. Frenkel-Brunswick, D. Levinson and R. Sanford, The Authoritarian Personality (New York: Harper 1950).
4. Cf. S. T. Fiske, 'Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination', in D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske and G. Lindzey (eds), The Handbook of Social Psychology, 4th edn, vol. 2 (New York: McGraw-Hill 1998).
5. See D. Capozza and R. Brown, Social Identity Processes: Trends in Theory and Research (London: Sage 2000).
6. L. Hagendoorn, H. Linssen and S. Tumanov, Intergroup Relations in States of the Former Soviet Union: The Perceptions of Russians (Hove: Psychology Press 2001), 154-65; G. E. Simpson and J. M. Yinger, Racial and Cultural Minorities: An Analysis of Prejudice and Discrimination (New York: Plenum 1985).
7. L. Hagendoorn, H. Linssen and S. Tumanov, Intergroup Relations in States of the Former Soviet Union: The Perceptions of Russians (Hove: Psychology Press 2001), 154-65; G. E. Simpson and J. M. Yinger, Racial and Cultural Minorities: An Analysis of Prejudice and Discrimination (New York: Plenum 1985).
8. L. Bobo, 'Whites' opposition to busing: symbolic racism or realistic group conflict?', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 45, 1983, 1196-210.
9. See R. Hardin, One for All: The Logic of Group Conflict (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1995).
10. J. Dollard, 'Hostility and fear in social life', Social Forces, vol. 17, 1938, 15-26.
11. P. Jacobs and S. Landau, To Serve the Devil, vol. 2 (New York: Vintage Books 1971), 71.
12. M. Sherif, O. J. Harvey, J. White, W. Hood and C. Sherif, Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation: The Robber's Cave Experiment (Norman: Institute of Intergroup Relations, University of Oklahoma 1961).
13. See M. O'Connell, Right-wing Ireland? The Rise of Populism in Ireland and Europe (Dublin: Liffey Press 2003).
14. R. Inglehart, The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1977).
15. Ibid., 38.
16. T. F. Pettigrew and R. W. Meertens, 'Subtle and blatant prejudice in Western Europe', European Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 25, 1995, 57-75 (72).
17. Ibid., 72.
18. P. Knigge, 'The ecological correlates of right-wing extremism in Western Europe', European Journal of Political Research, vol. 34, 1998, 249-79.
19. M. Lubbers, Exclusionistic Electorates: Extreme Right-wing Voting in Western Europe (Nijmegen: ICS/KUN 2001).
20. Ibid., 241.
21. See P. M. Sniderman, L. Hagendoorn and M. Prior, 'Predisposing factors and situational triggers: exclusionary reactions to immigrant minorities', American Political Science Review, vol. 98, 2004, 35-49 (35).
22. The European Social Survey 2002/2003 was directed by Roger Jowell and coordinated by researchers in the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The author wishes to express his gratitude to the Institute for the Study of Social Change (ISSC) at University College Dublin for making the data available to Irish researchers.
23. Economic egalitarianism is based on the 'income quintile share ratio'. This is derived by calculating the ratio between the income of the top 20 per cent of a society's population with the income of the bottom 20 per cent. The higher the score, the greater the economic inequality. The inequality of income distribution scores for EU states, EU accession states as well as a number of other countries are provided by Eurostat on their website, see http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/structuralindicators (viewed 3 January 2005).
24. For a discussion of the psycho-social characteristics of more versus less equal societies, see R. G. Wilkinson, Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions of Inequality (London: Routledge 1996).
25. PPPs are 'a common currency that eliminate the differences in price levels between countries allowing meaningful volume comparisons of GDP between countries': these data are available on the Eurostat website at http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/newcronos/reference/display.do?screen = detailref&language = en&product = EU_st.rind&root = EU_st.rind/strind/ecobac/eb011 (viewed 3 January 2005).
26. H-G. Betz, Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe (New York: St Martin's Press 1994).
27. See the English webpage of the Dansk Folkeparti website, www.danskfolkeparti.dk/ (viewed 19 November 2004).
28. For more sophisticated ways of expressing the relationship between attitude and behaviour, see work on the 'Theory of Reasoned Action', in I. Ajzen and M. Fishbein, Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall 1980), and I. Ajzen, "The theory of planned behavior. Special issue: Theories of cognitive self-regulation', Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, vol. 50, 1991, 179-211.
29. For more sophisticated ways of expressing the relationship between attitude and behaviour, see work on the 'Theory of Reasoned Action', in I. Ajzen and M. Fishbein, Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall 1980), and I. Ajzen, "The theory of planned behavior. Special issue: Theories of cognitive self-regulation', Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, vol. 50, 1991, 179-211.
30. M. Jackman and M. Muha, 'Education and intergroup attitudes: moral enlightenment, superficial democratic commitment or ideological refinement?', American Sociological Review, vol. 49, 1984, 751-69.
31. See Wilkinson, Unhealthy Societies, for a comparison of more and less egalitarian societies, for example.
32. Eurostat Yearbook 2004 (Luxembourg: Office of Official Publications of the European Communities 2004), 52.
33. R. Inglehart, in debate with S. Flanagan, 'Value change in industrial societies', American Political Science Review, vol. 81, 1987, 1289-319 (1289).