Exclusion and Antisystem Attitudes: The Impact of Perceived Discrimination in Attitudes towards Democracy and the Willingness to Use Violence among Adolescents in Brussels

Elham Mansoury Babhoutak,Nohemi Jocabeth Echeverria Vicente,Dimokritos Kavadias

doi:10.3390/socsci9100175

Elham Mansoury Babhoutak, Nohemi Jocabeth Echeverria Vicente + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9100175

Copy DOI

Journal: Social Sciences	Publication Date: Oct 1, 2020
Citations: 5	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Abstract

Perceived discrimination, the perception of systematic exclusion due to background characteristics, has been studied extensively in general. The political consequences of this perception remain underexplored for adolescents. Discrimination may engender a rejection of common political values such as the support for democratic politics. Using the data of 1789 pupils with an average age of 16 years (grade 10) from 24 schools in Brussels, we focus on the consequences of perceived discrimination in attitudes towards violence, as well as on a rejection of representative democracy. The outcomes of a multilevel analysis suggest that high levels of self-reported perceived discrimination are significantly associated with an anti-democratic attitude (rejection of the current form of representative democracy) and the willingness to use violence. In a context in which 75% of pupils have a non-native background, these findings reveal the challenges for future forms of civic education.

Highlights

A growing number of inhabitants of European cities have an immigrant background (Schaeffer 2013)
In 2014, the data from the European Social Survey (ESS) showed a negative relationship between perceived discrimination and the level of satisfaction with democracy among second and later generations of ethnic minority migrants (Rood 2018). These findings show that having a low satisfaction with regard to democracy or feeling disconnected from the country in which one lives are attributable to a reduced sense of national belonging or social exclusion, and that this might enforce the rejection of democracy
In contrast to research regarding the satisfaction with democracy, ‘that measures whether democracy is functioning as it should’ (Rood 2018, p. 4), our research aims to measure the impact of perceived discrimination on antidemocracy or to what extent young people are rejecting today’s representative democracy (Elchardus and Tresignie 2002; Kavadias 2004)

Summary

Introduction

A growing number of inhabitants of European cities have an immigrant background (Schaeffer 2013). OECD (2012) states that “Today, foreign–born nationals constitute between 10 and 15 per cent of the population in Western European Countries” Contemporary urban school contexts in these superdiverse cities are characterized by high degrees of ethnic diversity. Most of these new citizens do not see themselves automatically as full-fledged citizens of these societies. 27 EU member states, the mean percentage of perceived discrimination is higher for immigrants (11.2%). This feeling of “being discriminated against” might affect the degree of social cohesion in these societies.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion