The Western hemisphere has witnessed recent increased immigration flows generating social and political debate across Europe. In one view, migration flows represent an opportunity to construct a ...diverse social cohesion. In another view, migration flows are perceived as a threat to existent national cultures. This view is held by political nationalisms and right-wing populist forces installed in the majority of EU countries’ parliaments, accentuating discrimination against immigrants and residents in Europe. We theorize that European identity predicts positive attitudes toward immigrants (prosocial behavior and support for inclusive policies), whereas national identity’s predictions of attitudes toward immigrants’ inclusion depends on participants’ political tendency. Moreover, we test the mediation effect of positive (humanitarian concerns and economic benefit) and negative (jobs scarcity, cultural deterioration, and invasion) arguments used in political discourses regarding immigrants’ inclusion on the relation between national and European identities and attitudes toward immigrants’ inclusion. Results (Portuguese sample,
N
= 176) show that national identity predicts negative attitudes toward immigrants’ inclusion, but only among right-wing individuals. Among left-wing individuals, national identity predicts less contestation to immigrant’s inclusion sustained by humanitarian concerns. Interestingly, European identification weakened right-wing individuals’ adherence to discriminatory arguments and increased perceived economic contribution that immigrants bring to society, increasing agreement with prosocial behavior and immigrants’ inclusion. We discuss that European identity, sustained in humanitarian values and economic benefit, may stimulate a stronger multicultural social cohesion, intergroup trust, and social well-being based on democratic values, social justice, and equality, and on the respect for human dignity.
This special issue challenges the concept of fluidity and flexibility of identities by demonstrating that 'new' European identity is not easily adopted and that the co-existence of ethnic and ...national identities is an ongoing process of negotiation. The theoretical approach assuming multiple identities can be confirmed for ethnic minorities in Central and Eastern Europe who were often thought to be focused on ethnic identities. This issue provides empirical quantitative and qualitative evidence for showing that ethnic minorities typically relate to their ethnic identity and to the national identity of their residence country simultaneously. The individual papers reveal that the development and maintenance of ethnic, national and European identities are often linked to the socio-economic situation and possible benefits. Also, social and cultural practices such as language and media consumption are crucial for the construction of identities. Furthermore, articles in the special issue highlight that national and European politics, above all minority rights and integration policies, may contribute to ethnic and European identification.
In this article we position the contributions to our special issue in relation to existing scholarship on racism and stereotypes. We pay close attention to conceptual strands in the literature that ...emphasize two cognitive-discursive characteristics of stereotypes: their essentialist reductions and projections and their metonymical qualities. We then extend our conceptual and thematic map further to include recent discussions of the relationships between national and European identifications, particularly in crisis contexts, and the role of memory politics in them. We conclude with a brief mention of the scope and potential dangers of historical analogies in moments of crisis and fragmentation.
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