Situational insecurity versus entrenched ideologies as the source of right‐wing voters’ anti‐migrant sentiment on both sides of the Atlantic

Abstract

A popular explanation for the emergence of right-wing populism is that perceived threats toward migrants triggered a wave of anti-migrant sentiment. This kind of insecurity narrative paints ethnocentrism as a reaction to ongoing events rather than an entrenched belief that coexists with related right-wing ideologies. A mediation model was constructed with an anti-migrant sentiment as the outcome, a sense of insecurity as the mediator and a composite of right-wing ideologies as predictors. Study 1 was conducted with 220 Americans and 231 Germans a few months after the Paris terrorist attack. Study 2, a preregistered replication, was conducted two years later on 151 British as well as 183 Spanish participants where both countries saw a recent terrorist attack on their own soil. A replicated finding across the four samples rejected insecurity as a mediator. In all samples, the indirect pathways showed the same weakness-while conservatives were risk averse, their sense of insecurity was not a linchpin to anti-migrant sentiment. The significant direct pathways confirmed the integrity of the conservative belief system where anti-migrant sentiment was best explained by related componential beliefs, such as right-wing authoritarianism, nationalism, and neoliberalism. Concerns about terror threats and migrant crises seem to have been hijacked to sugarcoat the ideological nature of ethnocentrism, at least under the present threat scenarios. Suggestions are made to further examine the insecurity narrative in the future. How to cite this article: Cheung-Blunden V. Situational insecurity versus entrenched ideologies as the source of right-wing voters' anti-migrant sentiment on both sides of the Atlantic. J Appl Soc Psychol. 2020;50:337-350.

The sway of migrant crisis and COVID-19 pandemic on voter preference.

“…Right-wing authoritarians' sensitivity to threats can be found in Altemeyer's (1988) articulation of the personality type, particularly their preferences for order and uniformity as well as their aversions for change and deviancy. RWA seemed to be the most consistent contributor to risk perception in the present studies and in a study by Cheung-Blunden (2020). Among many past studies of this kind (Butler, 2013;Cohrs & Ibler, 2009;Eigenberger, 1998), Butler (2013) found authoritarians most fearful to social difference, defined as elements of a person's appearance or behavior that involve diversity or deviance from common social norms.…”

“…The primacy of ideology over risk perception was a key finding of Cheung-Blunden (2020) in a study of public sentiments in the aftermath of terrorist attacks. The study measured several political ideologies, commonly seen as the cornerstones of conservatism—right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), neoliberalism, and nationalism (Harvey, 2007; Klingemann, 2005; Ware, 1995).…”

“…Cheung-Blunden (2020) examined political ideology, a sense of insecurity, and protectionist policy in structural equation models (SEMs) and traced the influences of the variables along the paths. A sense of insecurity was not pivotal to the support for protectionist policy because path b in Figure 1 was not significant.…”

Refugee education: Introduction to the special section

“…Studies concur that far‐right nationalist groups fuel anti‐refugee sentiments in western European countries, east‐central European countries and the USA (Benčk & Strasheim, 2016; Kreis, 2017; Zaviršek & Rajgelj, 2019; Cheung‐Blunden, 2020). Here, it is worthy of note that ideologies of far‐right nationalist groups are not always similar across countries.…”

La crisis de la Covid-19 como oportunidad política. El uso de Twitter por Santiago Abascal durante el estado de alarma en España (14 de marzo-20 de junio de 2020)

“…El asunto nacional frente a los enemigos externos (globalización, Unión Europea) y, sobre todo, internos (nacionalismos periféricos). El discurso antiinmigración no sería tan patente entre sus simpatizantes o seguidores (Rinken, 2019, p. 80), algo que contrastaría con lo ocurrido en otros países, donde también se ha constatado el crecimiento de partidos de extrema derecha ( Van-der-Brug;Fennema, 2003;Gallego, 2017;Edo;Öztunc;Poutvaara, 2019;Hansen;Clemens, 2019;Hutchins;Halikiopoulou, 2019;Bialasiewicz;Stallone, 2020;Cheung-Blunden, 2020;Roupakias;Chletsos, 2020). Discursos que, no obstante, el partido ha lanzado, en un rasgo común que lo relaciona con otras organizaciones de corte similar en el continente, así como con el denominado efecto Bannon, que implica la promoción de ciertos puntos de vista sobre la nación, la inmigración, la Unión Europea o los musulmanes (Gould, 2019).…”