Abstract
For decades, migration to Germany has been a relevant social phenomenon resulting in an increasing share of foreigners and Germans with migration background in the German populace. Additionally, since 2015, Germany has experienced a substantial increase in the immigration of people seeking refuge and asylum from civil war, economic and environmental catastrophes, and other adverse living conditions. These developments can be assumed to have led to an increase in intergroup contact between Germans and foreigners. We investigate this phenomenon in a multifaceted fashion by combining a social indicator and monitoring approach using repeated cross-sections over time with a new panel approach using a short-time panel to study causal relations. As a first step, we descriptively analyze the development of intergroup contact experiences of the German population with foreigners in various areas of life using data from the ALLBUS survey collected over 36 years between 1980 and 2016. Specifically, we detail the diverging contact experiences of participants with and without migration background as well as participants in the former Eastern and Western part of Germany. In a second step, based on Allport’s intergroup contact theory that contact with outgroup members may improve attitudes towards these outgroups and other related findings, we examine the longitudinal processes between positive intergroup contact with foreigners and attitudes towards foreigners using four waves of the GESIS Panel collected over approximately one and a half years. We apply special rigor to these analyses by differentiating stable differences in intergroup contact experiences and attitudes between participants from within-person processes and discussing the implications of this differentiation.
Highlights
Migration has been a constant topic of importance in the Federal Republic of Germany
This article seeks to expand upon past research, which had used only cross-sectional data or shorttime panels with small samples, by first examining where persons with German citizenship with varying migrant backgrounds might experience intergroup contact with foreigners living in Germany, and by examining how much contact these individuals have had over a time period of 20 years with migrants in various areas of life
In order to examine the experiences of respondents, questions were taken from the ALLBUS data that asked respondents about their personal contact with foreigners living in Germany, with regard to which area of life these contacts occurred
Summary
Migration has been a constant topic of importance in the Federal Republic of Germany. According to the Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees; 2019a), as a consequence, well over a million refugees came to Germany in the following years after this landmark decision, mostly being greeted with a positive reception from the German populace Political parties such as the Alternative for Germany and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria came forward with warnings that such an influx of refugees threatened the safety of the Western lifestyle, due to the increase in Muslims. This article will shed light on the dispositions of the German majority towards foreigners as a minority group and the perception of intergroup contact between them For this analysis, time-series data from 1980–2016 exists that allows for the examination of long-term social change.
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