Rethinking the Boundaries: Competitive Threat and the Asymmetric Salience of Race/Ethnicity in Attitudes toward Immigrants

Research on attitudes toward immigrants has come to divergent conclusions regarding the role of race and ethnicity in shaping these attitudes. Using survey data from 18 European countries, the authors analyze how conditions associated with both economic and cultural threat shape respondents’ receptivity to establishing relationships with immigrants of the same race or ethnicity versus immigrants of a different race or ethnicity. The analyses reveal that the salience of racial and ethnic differences in shaping attitudes toward immigrants is asymmetric. Those who are more likely to express negative attitudes toward immigrants are also more likely to differentiate between immigrants on the basis of race and ethnicity, whereas those less likely to express negative attitudes are also less likely to distinguish between immigrants on the basis of racial and ethnic differences. The authors discuss the substantive and theoretical implications of these findings.