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Attitudes towards immigrants in five European countries: The role of European and national identities

Purpose. We investigated the attitudes towards immigrants in five European countries with different policies towards immigrants (Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Italy, and Germany) and determinants of these attitudes. Furthermore, we examined the moderated effect of the country on the direct link between attachment to one's country (and Europe) and attitudes towards immigrants and on the indirect link via trust in country's parliament (and European Parliament). Background. Based on social identity approach, we focused on the predictive role of different social identities, namely, attachment to one's country and attachment to Europe. Furthermore, we assumed that the underlying mechanism of the relationship between different social identities and attitudes towards immigrants is trust in the parliament. Thus, in some countries European and national identity could have similar and in others opposite effects on the attitudes toward immigrants. Method. Our research is cross-sectional correlational. We used data from European Social Survey Round 9. The participants were 14 344 adults (age 15-90). Results. Findings revealed significant differences in attitudes towards immigrants between countries, with the most positive attitudes found in Germany. Furthermore, attachment to Europe was consistent predictor of positive attitudes towards immigrants, while the importance of other variables was country dependant. We confirmed moderated mediation and these results will be further discussed. Conclusions. The discussion will focus on individual factors that proved to be the most important predictor of people's attitudes towards immigrants as well as political and social position of the included countries.

attitudes towards immigrants, European identity, national identity, trust in parliament

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