Insiders, Outsiders and Immigrants: How Race and Ethnicity Shape Immigrant Integration Across 18 European Countries

• In Event: 469 - Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. Immigrant Integration in Europe

Abstract

Race and ethnicity are central to debates over the conditions that shape attitudes towards immigrants, yet their effects remain unclear. This article advances these debates, demonstrating that the effects of race and ethnicity on attitudes toward immigrants are asymmetric, with different effects based on whether immigrants are understood as ethnoracial “insiders” or “outsiders.” Using survey data from the European Social Survey for 18 European countries in a series of hierarchical linear regression models, we show that while attitudes towards immigrants are shaped by social and economic conditions at the national level, this is only true when evaluating the integration of immigrants as an issue that is distinct from the integration of racial or ethnic minorities. When racial and ethnic boundaries are crossed, individuals’ attributes, attitudes, experiences and prejudices prevail, transcending national contexts. These findings offer important new insights and correctives to research on immigration, racial and ethnic discrimination, and symbolic boundaries.

Authors

• Eric W. Schoon, University of Arizona

• Kathryn Freeman Anderson, University of Arizona