Abstract
The Western hemisphere has witnessed recent increased immigration flows generating social and political debate across Europe. In one view, migration flows represent an opportunity to construct a diverse social cohesion. In another view, migration flows are perceived as a threat to existent national cultures. This view is held by political nationalisms and right-wing populist forces installed in the majority of EU countries’ parliaments, accentuating discrimination against immigrants and residents in Europe. We theorize that European identity predicts positive attitudes toward immigrants (prosocial behavior and support for inclusive policies), whereas national identity’s predictions of attitudes toward immigrants’ inclusion depends on participants’ political tendency. Moreover, we test the mediation effect of positive (humanitarian concerns and economic benefit) and negative (jobs scarcity, cultural deterioration, and invasion) arguments used in political discourses regarding immigrants’ inclusion on the relation between national and European identities and attitudes toward immigrants’ inclusion. Results (Portuguese sample, N = 176) show that national identity predicts negative attitudes toward immigrants’ inclusion, but only among right-wing individuals. Among left-wing individuals, national identity predicts less contestation to immigrant’s inclusion sustained by humanitarian concerns. Interestingly, European identification weakened right-wing individuals’ adherence to discriminatory arguments and increased perceived economic contribution that immigrants bring to society, increasing agreement with prosocial behavior and immigrants’ inclusion. We discuss that European identity, sustained in humanitarian values and economic benefit, may stimulate a stronger multicultural social cohesion, intergroup trust, and social well-being based on democratic values, social justice, and equality, and on the respect for human dignity.
Highlights
Europe has been one of the leading destinations for immigration, with an increased migratory flow over the past decade
We propose that National Identity would show different patterns of association with European Identity, depending on individuals’ Political Tendency
Right-wing participants do not relate National to European Identity. For this group of participants, National and European Identities show opposite patterns of prediction regarding some of the arguments and attitudes regarding immigrants: National Identity is more supportive of contestation and exclusive policies, whereas European Identity, on the contrary, is more predictive of pro-immigration attitudes, both regarding prosocial behavior and support for inclusive policies
Summary
Europe has been one of the leading destinations for immigration, with an increased migratory flow over the past decade (e.g., de Wenden, 2019). To deal with the biggest migration flow since World War II, the European Commission has implemented the European Agenda on Migration (European Commission, 2015) This set of political measures, based on solidarity and shared responsibility (European Commission, 2019b), is grounded on four pillars: reduction of incentives for irregular migration; strengthening of borders, protection and asylum; and integration and legal migration (e.g., Apap et al, 2019; European Commission, 2019a). Consistent with the inclusive European Agenda, many political leaders across Europe publicly advocated for inclusiveness and integration, calling for open borders and humanitarian actions to save lives. One of these leaders was Chancellor Angela Merkel, who opened Germany to host up to 1 million refugees (La Baume, 2017). A general social malaise (perceived anomie, lack of trust in political elites, feelings of social decline, and ethnocentrism) seems to be rising in contemporary Europe with immigrants’ entrance (Aschauer, 2014)
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