Intolerance toward immigrants in Switzerland: Diminished threat through social contacts?
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Intolerance toward immigrants in Switzerland : Diminished threat through social contacts? / Freitag, Markus; Rapp, Carolin.
In: Swiss Political Science Review, Vol. 19, No. 4, 01.12.2013, p. 425-446.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Intolerance toward immigrants in Switzerland
T2 - Diminished threat through social contacts?
AU - Freitag, Markus
AU - Rapp, Carolin
PY - 2013/12/1
Y1 - 2013/12/1
N2 - Intolerance toward immigrants has recently reached noticeable highs in Switzerland. Referring to the conflict theory, the perception of a specific group as a threat tends to lead to intolerance toward that group. The expectation of a negative relationship between threat and tolerance is nevertheless not assumed to be universally valid for all members of society. In particular, the contact theory assumes that intercultural encounters should promote positive attitudes toward culturally different individuals and groups. Using a new and unique data set, our Heckman selection models reveal that Swiss who view rising immigration to mean a loss of economic privileges and an erosion of Swiss cultural values are less tolerant toward immigrants. Moreover, our results indicate that contact with immigrants may moderate this effect. However, not all group settings are able to reduce the perceived threats in a similar way, and not all sorts of social contact are able to foster tolerance toward immigrants.
AB - Intolerance toward immigrants has recently reached noticeable highs in Switzerland. Referring to the conflict theory, the perception of a specific group as a threat tends to lead to intolerance toward that group. The expectation of a negative relationship between threat and tolerance is nevertheless not assumed to be universally valid for all members of society. In particular, the contact theory assumes that intercultural encounters should promote positive attitudes toward culturally different individuals and groups. Using a new and unique data set, our Heckman selection models reveal that Swiss who view rising immigration to mean a loss of economic privileges and an erosion of Swiss cultural values are less tolerant toward immigrants. Moreover, our results indicate that contact with immigrants may moderate this effect. However, not all group settings are able to reduce the perceived threats in a similar way, and not all sorts of social contact are able to foster tolerance toward immigrants.
KW - Contact theory
KW - Immigrants
KW - Intolerance
KW - Switzerland
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84889641123&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/spsr.12049
DO - 10.1111/spsr.12049
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84889641123
VL - 19
SP - 425
EP - 446
JO - SPSR - Swiss Political Science Review
JF - SPSR - Swiss Political Science Review
SN - 1424-7755
IS - 4
ER -
ID: 189626992