Intergroup Perceptions and Attitudes toward Immigrants in a Culturally Plural Society

Abstract

The research examined perceptions of Chinese immigrants held by New Zealanders of European and Maori descent. The study (N = 318) adopted an intergroup perspective to test a predictive model of attitudes toward immigrants. It was based on a nation-wide survey with prospective respondents randomly selected from the New Zealand Electoral rolls. Findings revealed that Maori differed from their European counterparts in predictable ways, reporting more relative deprivation and greater perceived threat, and holding more negative outgroup attitudes. Less contact and greater perceived threat predicted more negative attitudes toward immigrants; in addition, when intergroup boundaries were permeable, the link between perceived threat and negative attitudes was stronger in Maori than New Zealand Europeans. While intergroup relations are traditionally analysed in a dual group formation involving a privileged "dominant" ingroup and disadvantaged "minority" immigrant outgroup, the current research suggests the need to advance beyond this dichotomy to a more inclusive approach and to consider the interface between the historical and political milieux in specific national contexts.

Dispositional and Psychosocial Variables as Longitudinal Predictors of Acculturative Stress

“…This idea is an extension of Brewer's optimal distinctiveness theory (), according to which the individual must find a balance between the different personal, social, and cultural forces that shape his or her identity. In line with Leong and Ward (), who stated that “Intergroup contact creates opportunities for people of different backgrounds to understand and appreciate members of other groups” (p. 59), we propose that the promotion of an intercultural social support network could facilitate adolescents’ identification with members of the diverse range of cultural groups that make up the society in which they live. Consequently, promotion of more expansive intercultural networks, with the promotion of peer support programmes with adolescents of all cultural backgrounds, for example, could enable adolescents to construct a greater intercultural identity, which could ease their experience of acculturation.…”

Explaining negative outgroup attitudes between native Dutch and Muslim youth in The Netherlands using the Integrated Threat Theory

“…The Muslim community experiences poverty and exclusion from the labor market; hence, to them economic threat is very real. Leong and Ward (2011) studied the way European descent New Zealanders and native New Zealanders (Maori) perceive the influential and growing group of Chinese immigrants to New Zealand. They stipulate that the legal and political system regulating intergroup permeability plays a role.…”

Competition- and Identity-based Roots of Anti-immigration Prejudice among Individuals with and without an Immigrant Background

“…However, because of the increasingly complex demographic make-up or "super diversity" (see Vertovec, 2007) of most host countries, "the designation of ingroup and outgroup is more complicated than early theoretical models might suggest" (Deaux, 2000, p. 423; see also Leong & Ward, 2011). Indeed, in many countries, a long history of immigration has resulted in increased numbers of individuals that are born in the country but have foreign roots.…”