1st Edition
Nationalism and Exclusion of Migrants Cross-National Comparisons
The association of exclusionist and nationalist relations, termed ethnocentrism, has been previously explored within single-country contexts. Studies have shown that dispositional factors, such as social identity and personality traits, affect ethnocentric reactions and that attitudes differ between social categories. However, broader national and international explanations have been neglected in the literature. This book fills this major gap by providing a unique account of the relationship between nationalist attitudes and the exclusion of migrants across a range of European countries, the US, Canada and Australia. Drawing on a variety of comparative surveys, the authors assess whether ethnic exclusionist reactions and nationalist attitudes are indeed systematically related across countries, and whether variations in such attitudes reflect country-level as well as individual-level differences. The authors consider the multidimensionality of the concepts of nationalism and exclusionism as well as the empirical associations, and analyze the attitudes of both majority and minority groups within the countries studied.
Biography
Mérove Gijsberts is a Senior Researcher at the Social and Cultural Planning Office of the Netherlands, Louk Hagendoorn is Professor of General Social Sciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and Peer Scheepers is Professor of Research Methodology at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
’The authors’ research and arguments impact multiple disciplines, help the reader understand how the peoples of today’s world interrelate with each other, and should not be ignored in any study on ethnocentrism...This is an intriguing study that is extremely well-organized and supported by strong hypotheses, experiments and results...a thought-provoking book...this book should have a lasting impact on multiple disciplines and any individual who reads it.’ Ethnic and Racial Studies ’...the separate entries are well-integrated...and collectively contribute to a coherent social-psychological theory of exclusionist attitudes...I recommend this book as a good place to start to understand the social-psychological dimensions of negative attitudes toward immigrants...’ Contemporary Sociology ’This book fills current research gaps on the issue of nationalism and social closure by...providing a comparative analysis of ethnocentrism.’ Sociological Abstracts
