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Date Permissions Signed

11-22-2011

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Political Science

First Advisor

Abedi, Amir, 1966-

Second Advisor

Biswas, Bidisha

Third Advisor

Inverarity, James M.

Abstract

This study examines some of the potential underlying conditions that trigger prejudice against immigrants in Western Europe. The specific factors of economic concerns and perceptions of immigration population are used to generate three hypotheses 1) that economic concerns and perceptions of large immigrant populations drive negative attitude formation toward immigrants, and these factors are especially acute when they interact, 2) the two factors contribute to negative attitude formation regardless of societal context, and 3) that the two factors of study are not spurious and are able to withstand the factoring in of exclusionary variables. The study uses the 2008 wave of the European Social Survey for testing and finds that the hypotheses are partially confirmed. Economic concern is a factor when an individual is thinking about their country at large and when personal concerns interact with perceptions of high immigration, however the degree to which these factors influence negative attitude formation may be tempered by societal context. The larger finding of this study is that negative attitude formation toward immigrants is largely affected by an individual's personal level of happiness, life satisfaction, and general feelings of fairness and trust. This study is left to conclude that animosity or negative feelings toward immigrants is an external demonstration of internal dissatisfaction, in other words a symptom of an underlying problem rather than a substantial problem unto itself.

Type

Text

DOI

https://doi.org/10.25710/rwy4-ya31

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

774035183

Subject – LCSH

Immigrants--Europe--Public opinion; Europe--Emigration and immigration--Public opinion

Geographic Coverage

Europe

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this thesis for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.

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