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Migrant categorizations and European public opinion: diverging attitudes towards immigrants and refugees
Open accessAbstract
In recent years, European media and public discourse have been increasingly categorising newcomers using terminology like ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’. The aim of this practice is to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate newcomers in the wake of the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe. Drawing on data from an online survey in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Sweden (n = 6000) in September and October of 2017, this article investigates how the use of these categories relates to public opinion on ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’. Findings show that people hold more positive attitudes towards ‘refugees’ than towards ‘immigrants’, a process which is likely driven by media framing. Attitude discrepancies within ‘immigrant’ and ‘refugee’ categories are also investigated, as categorical fetishism causes further differentiation of attitudes within these groups. Public opinion differences within ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’ are found along three cleavages: ethnicity, the economic situation of the origin country, and region of origin. Newcomers with the same ethnicity (vs. a different ethnicity), from ‘rich’ countries (vs. ‘poor’ countries), and from European countries (vs. non-European countries) are preferred in both categories. With these findings, this article reveals important aspects of the influence of migrant categorizations on public opinion towards vulnerable groups of newcomers.
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“Dempster & Hargrave (2017) find that studies across a variety of countries have historically shown a distinction between attitudes toward those recognized as refugees and toward other types of migrants, with a general preference for recognized refugees (but not asylum seekers; see also De Coninck 2020).”
From Prejudice and Discrimination Toward Immigrants (2021) · cites this paper as De Coninck 2020
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Metadata
- Authors
- De Coninck, D.
- Affiliations
- Centre for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Belgium
- ORCID
- De Coninck, David
- Venue
- Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2019-11-21
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1667-1686
- ISSN
- 1369-183X (ISSN-L)
- 1469-9451
- OpenAlex
- W2991438502
- Cited by
- 175
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 8
- FWCI
- 21.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- lirias.kuleuven.be
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (publishedVersion)
- Lirias (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BR/165/A4/IMMEDIATE, BR/165/A4)
- KU Leuven
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration, Refugees, and Integration
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Law › Migration, Racism, and Human Rights
- Keywords
- migrant categorization, public opinion on immigrants, attitudes toward refugees, 2015 refugee crisis, media framing, region of origin, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Sweden
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