Rethinking integration: what we can learn from social psychology

Vander Most, Neil G

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/89197 Copy

Description

Title

Rethinking integration: what we can learn from social psychology

Author(s)

Vander Most, Neil G

Issue Date

2015-11-16

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Leff, Carol

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Leff, Carol

Committee Member(s)

• Pahre, Robert
• Rudolph, Thomas
• Kuklinski, James

Department of Study

Political Science

Discipline

Political Science

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Integration
• Netherlands
• Flanders
• Assimilation
• Multiculturalism
• Interculturalism
• Liberalism

Abstract

The integration of vast numbers of migrants into European countries from North Africa and the Middle East continues pose challenges for policy makers. The many differences between these immigrants and the native population can make assimilation difficult. In order to increase trust and social cohesion between citizens and migrant populations, various forms of multicultural and assimilatory policies have been enacted with mixed success. This study challenges the usefulness of the current way people think about integration ideologies, namely as a choice between assimilation and multiculturalism. I hypothesize that we can better analyze public attitudes about integration by conceptualizing integration as a continuum of possibilities arranged along a scale of overall permissiveness. Using this continuum, we can entertain new and more effective ideologies as policy options. My field research conducted surveys with native-born citizens in the Netherlands and Belgium to gather information about the appeal and usefulness of these new integration ideologies. This paper finds evidence that the more moderate ideologies of interculturalism and “liberalism as identity” create stronger feelings of trust toward immigrant while minimizing in-group projection, overcoming the in-group projection problem. Furthermore, in Belgium, interculturalism is seen as more desirable to the respondents than the current more extreme policies of multiculturalism and assimilation.

Graduation Semester

2015-12

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/89197

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2015 Neil Vander Most

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