Cosmopolitans, Educated Liars or Both? Education Gradients in Support for Muslim Immigrants to the Netherlands

• In Event: 2484 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 10. Immigration and International Education

Abstract

The presentation of self is understood to include the selective revelation of identity –
shaped by the audience and the performer. If more education truly correlates with more
tolerance of Muslim immigrants, reflective of a more cosmopolitan outlook, education
gradients should remain even when respondents are offered absolute anonymity.
However, if more educated respondents anticipate the stigma of Islamophobia, greater
masking will positively correlate with higher levels of attained education – a pattern of
educated liars. Using a population-level survey experiment in the Netherlands, I assess
the extent to which education gradients in support for Muslim immigration reflect true
variation in tolerance or, instead, selective masking. I find significant masking occurs at
all levels of schooling. However, there is little evidence that observed gradients in
tolerance are partially or wholly determined by the anticipation of stigma and resulting
masking. Instead, education gradients define a pattern of cosmopolitan liars.

Author

• Mathew Jamieson Creighton, University College Dublin