The Relationship between Local Identification, Urban Disorder Sensitivity, and Prejudice Toward Immigrants: The Role of Autochthony

Abstract

Highlights• Local identification is related to both autochthony and sensitivity to urban disorder.• Local identification is directly and indirectly associated with ethnic prejudice.• Autochthony is a powerful ideology that can trigger exclusionary responses.Abstract Autochthony is the belief that a place belongs to those who were born there and that they are more entitled. Autochthony and local identification can foster sensitivity to any source of disorder that threatens local stability. The aims of this study were to determine whether: (a) local identification is associated with a higher level of sensitivity to urban disorder and a higher level of prejudice toward immigrants; (b) higher city identifiers use autochthony (entitlement for first comers) as a justification for both of these attitudes. A self-report questionnaire was administered to 254 adult residents of Turin, Italy. Local identification was found related to autochthony and to urban disorder sensitivity, autochthony was positively associated with both urban disorder sensitivity and prejudice toward immigrants and it mediated the relationship between local identification and prejudice.

Racial majority group’s support for racial equality in Malaysia.

“…To safeguard the group’s land ownership, autochthonous groups may marginalize and exclude others—including migrant groups and their descendants (even those with the same nationality) who have settled in the same territory for generations (Gausset et al, 2011; Martinovic & Verkuyten, 2013). Past research has shown autochthony can have detrimental effects on intergroup relations, including promoting prejudice toward minorities (Gattino et al, 2019; Martinovic & Verkuyten, 2013), increasing defensive ingroup behaviors (Nijs et al, 2022), enhancing support for infringing upon the rights of minorities (Smeekes et al, 2015), and promoting opposition toward minority-led movements (Selvanathan et al, 2020). Indeed, past research showed greater endorsement of autochthony among native Dutch citizens was related to more opposition toward the rights of Muslims in the Netherlands (Smeekes & Verkuyten, 2014; Verkuyten & Martinovic, 2015).…”

The global development of community psychology as reflected in the American Journal of Community Psychology

“…Similarly to the previous decades and consistently with the CP principles, disadvantaged and marginalized conditions continued to be a priority for research in the field, as indicated by studies on migration and homelessness. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, research on immigrant populations examined issues related to social justice (Paloma et al, 2014), sociopolitical control (Paloma et al, 2018), prejudice (Gattino et al, 2019), and community advocacy (Miranda et al, 2020). An additional study adopting an ethnographic approach explored the detention conditions of illegalized non‐citizens in Italy, showing how they can create a stressful environment for both detainees and professionals (Esposito et al, 2019).…”

Collective psychological ownership as a new angle for understanding group dynamics

“…In our research in European immigrant-receiving countries we systematically examined the importance of collective psychological ownership for attitudes towards outsiders and newcomers. In these studies we focused on different local (neighbourhood, park) and national contexts (country) and found that stronger endorsement of collective ownership, or of autochthony belief as a key principle of ownership (see also Gattino et al, 2019 ), is associated with more negative outgroup attitudes.…”

“…For example, research in Finland, the South of the United States and Canada, found that stronger attachment to the majority ingroup (Finnish, Southerner, Canadian) was related to stronger ingroup ownership beliefs (Brylka et al, 2015 ; Wright, 2018 ). And in Italy, stronger local (city) identification has been found to be associated with higher autochthony beliefs, and via those beliefs, to more negative attitudes towards immigrants (Gattino et al, 2019 ).…”