Towards a European identity? Interactions between the national and European social identities manifested by university students in Britain and Italy

Abstract

This paper focuses on a questionnaire study of national and European identities in the UK and Italy, as manifested by university students. British respondents often perceive European integration as a threat to British identity. Evidence for a sense of European identity amongst British respondents is minimal: this is reflected in significantly higher levels of national than European identity amongst British respondents, and use of discursive strategies emphasizing the perceived threat to national identity posed by European integration. British and European identity measures are negatively correlated. In contrast, for the Italian respondents, overall European identity is significantly stronger than Italian national identity on quantitative measures. Italian Euro‐identity is significantly stronger than British Euro‐identity on quantitative measures, and is positively correlated with measures of Italian identity. These observations are interpreted within the broad framework provided by Moscovici's theory of social representations (Moscovici, 1984) and Tajfel's social identity theory (Tajfel, 1974).