Social Consequences of Securitizing Citizenship: Two-Tiered Citizenry and Anti-Immigrant Attitudes

Abstract

In response to the rise in terrorism after the turn of the millennium, multiculturalist countries such as Australia, Britain and Canada introduced policies that make it easier to revoke the citizenships of dual nationals. These policies primarily target naturalized immigrants and their descendants. Ongoing debates indicate that more countries plan to follow suit. Some scholars argue that easy revocation policies create two-tiered political communities, where one group of citizens have a stronger status security than the other. This study builds on their perspectives, and argues that majority members should be more likely to hold anti-immigrant attitudes in countries where state policies discriminate against citizens in terms of status security. To test this hypothesis, this study employs multilevel regression analysis. Data come from European Values Study (2008), European Social Survey (2014), and Eurobarometer (2015), and cover thirty European countries. Findings offer support for the proposed hypothesis. In countries where immigrants have low status security, majority members are more likely to have negative attitudes toward immigrants. The results hold not only for immigrants in general but also for Muslim immigrants in particular.