Walloons as General or Specific Others? A Comparison of anti-Walloon and anti-immigrant Attitudes in Flanders.

Bart Meuleman,Cecil Meeusen,Koen Abts

doi:10.5334/pb.336

Abstract

This study attempts to shed light on the structure, the prevalence and the determinants of anti-Walloon attitudes in Flanders. For this purpose, we contrast anti-Walloon prejudice with prejudice against a relatively well-understood and archetypical out-group, namely immigrants. Our theoretical approach draws on insights from two paradigms of intergroup relations: the Group-Focused Enmity approach stressing that specific prejudices have a strong common denominator, and the Differentiated Threat model arguing that specific prejudices are contingent on the context of intergroup relations as well as the involved types of threat. To assess the (dis)similarities in anti-Walloon and anti-immigrant prejudice, we use the Flemish dataset of the Belgian National Election Study (BNES) 2010. Comparable measurement instruments for both forms of prejudice are analyzed by means of structural equation modeling. Our results reveal a nuanced picture regarding the similarities and differences between anti-Walloon and anti-immigrant attitudes in Flanders. One the one hand, anti-Walloon and anti-immigration attitudes are strongly correlated and rooted in economic threat perceptions. On the other hand, anti-Walloon attitudes are less outspoken in the Flemish population than anti-immigrant attitudes, are less founded on cultural threat perceptions and are more closely linked to feelings of identification with the Flemish in-group.

Highlights

Since the inception of the Belgian nation state, the -at times tense- intergroup relations between Flemish and Francophone citizens have been a staple of political conflict
The specificity of anti-Walloon and antiimmigrant attitudes In sum, while the Group-Focused Enmity (GFE) approach assumes that the structure and origins of prejudice should be similar across group- specific prejudices, the Differentiated Threat (DT) model argues that anti-Walloon/Francophone and anti- immigrant prejudices have -at least partiallydifferentiated structures and roots due to the specific cultural and economic contexts in which the relations between Flemings and these groups are embedded
The model fit is evaluated by assessing the Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation (RMSEA; should be below .06), the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI; closer to 1 is better), and the Standardized Root Mean Residual (SRMR; expected to be lower than 0.08) (Hu & Bentler, 1999)

Summary

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Walloons as General or Specific Others? A Comparison of anti-Walloon and anti-immigrant Attitudes in Flanders. This study attempts to shed light on the structure, the prevalence and the determinants of anti-Walloon attitudes in Flanders. For this purpose, we contrast anti-Walloon prejudice with prejudice against a relatively well-understood and archetypical out-group, namely immigrants. To assess the (dis)similarities in anti-Walloon and anti-immigrant prejudice, we use the Flemish dataset of the Belgian National Election Study (BNES) 2010. Anti-Walloon and anti-immigration attitudes are strongly correlated and rooted in economic threat perceptions. Anti-Walloon attitudes are less outspoken in the Flemish population than antiimmigrant attitudes, are less founded on cultural threat perceptions and are more closely linked to feelings of identification with the Flemish in-group

Introduction

Data and Methods

Results

Conclusion