Perceived Threat, Contact and Attitudes Towards the Integration of Immigrants. Evidence from Luxembourg.

Abstract

This paper examines the relation between immigration-related threat perceptions and the attitudes towards the integration (i.e. assimilation and multiculturalism) of immigrants by natives. Additionally it explores how that relationship interplays with intense contact with foreigners. The analysis is performed on a sample of natives in Luxembourg – the country with the highest proportion of immigrants in Europe. The European Value Study from 2008 for Luxembourg and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to conduct the analyses. The outcomes of our analyses reveal that feelings of threat are associated with less support for multicultural attitudes, whereas the opposite can be found with respect to support for assimilation attitudes. Furthermore, it was found that more intense contact with immigrant friends is negatively correlated with threat perceptions and support for assimilation and positively correlated with support for multicultural attitudes. Lastly, more contact with immigrants is also directly related to integration preferences.