Predicting Opposition towards Immigration: Economic Resources, Social Resources and Moral Principles

This study analyses the predictors of opposition towards immigrants of “different ethnic groups” and “poor countries” in 5 European countries (Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, France and United Kingdom), using data from the European Social Survey 1 (Jowell & the Central Coordinating Team, 2003). Besides Portugal, a country that has moved from being one of net emigration to being a new host country for immigrants, the other countries were selected according to their main policies of immigrants’ integration. Opposition towards immigration (OTI) is analysed using three theoretical models: a) the economic self-interest model that proposes that opposition towards immigration may be due to economic factors; b) the social capital model according to which social trust and self-reliance on political and social system may shape peoples’ opinions on the benefits of immigration; c) Schwartz’s human values model, based on which it is possible to predict that some values facilitate OTI, whereas others facilitate openness to immigration. The hypotheses tested are: a) there is a negative correlation between economic well-being and OTI; b) a negative correlation between social capital and OTI; c) a positive correlation between both conservation and self-enhancement values and OTI, and a negative correlation between both self-transcendence and openness to change values and OTI; d) the social values model will further predict opposition towards immigration over and above the other models. Results globally support the formulated hypotheses

Justifying gender discrimination in the workplace: The mediating role of motherhood myths

The issue of gender equality in employment has given rise to numerous policies in advanced industrial countries, all aimed at tackling gender discrimination regarding recruitment, salary and promotion. Yet gender inequalities in the workplace persist. The purpose of this research is to document the psychosocial process involved in the persistence of gender discrimination against working women. Drawing on the literature on the justification of discrimination, we hypothesized that the myths according to which women’s work threatens children and family life mediates the relationship between sexism and opposition to a mother’s career. We tested this hypothesis using the Family and Changing Gender Roles module of the International Social Survey Programme. The dataset contained data collected in 1994 and 2012 from 51632 respondents from 18 countries. Structural equation modellings confirmed the hypothesised mediation. Overall, the findings shed light on how motherhood myths justify the gender structure in countries promoting gender equality.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Black Immigrants in Portugal: LusoTropicalism and Prejudice

This article analyzes the relationship between the luso–tropicalist representation of the history of Portuguese colonization and overt as well as covert expressions of anti-immigrant prejudice. The luso–tropicalist representation emphasizes the uniqueness of the Portuguese colonial relations based on Portuguese empathy and capacity to deal with people from different cultures. This representation was created during Salazar’s dictatorial regime and is still assumed to be a dimension of Portuguese national identity. The empirical findings presented in this article show that this luso–tropicalist representation may explain the salience of the norm against prejudice in Portugal and may contribute to weaken the traditional association between national identity and overt prejudice. A second dimension of the association between luso–tropicalism and integration of Black immigrants in Portuguese society was examined, that is, the impact of luso–tropicalism on the attribution and covert evaluation of cultural differences between White Portuguese and Black immigrants. Results show that despite the luso–tropicalist representation, White Portuguese individuals express a covert negative evaluation of cultural differences attributed to Black immigrants. This means that the luso–tropicalist representation can protect against the expression of overt prejudice but not against its covert dimensions

A criança como símbolo social

O autor analisa a representqáo da criança nos manuais do ensino primário português, enquanto produções culturais, numa perspectiva dimensional e recorrendo ao mérodo de análise de conteúdo. O autor propõe uma leitura dos eixos constituitivos da representação da criança enquanto sistema de valores. A análise efectuada põe em evidência a criaça como símbolo social, expressão de valores e modelos pessoais e colectivos

Organizações de comunicação de massa e representações sociais: Ensaio de metodologia

Tout en questionnant les effets des représentations sur le contexte interne des organisations, l'auteur analyse la representation sociale des organisations de radiodiffusion. Les résultats obtenus confirment la portée du différenciateur semantique en tant qu'instrument d'analyse des représentations sociales, instrument sensible à la determination des attitudes et du champ de représentation. L'auteur termine en proposant une nouvelle approche de la problématique sousjacente à ce travaille, approche centrée sur la disruption des isolements entre les systèmes, ici en présence. à travers l'exploration active du politique

Priming meritocracy increases implict prejudice

Meritocracy is a prevalent norm characterizing most modern societies according to which social status and rewards should depend on individual effort and hard work. Despite its ubiquity, the effects of meritocracy have never been analyzed outside the field of explicit attitudes. Thus, expanding on the small body of studies that focus on the positive factors that promote the emergence of socially negative responses, we investigated the effect of priming meritocracy on the expression of implicit racial prejudice. Results from two experimental studies consistently showed that priming meritocracy results in higher levels of implicit prejudice (Studies 1 and 2) and elicits both inter- (Study 1) and intra-individual (Study 2) variations of the levels of prejudice.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The impact of biological and cultural racisms on attitudes towards immigrants and immigration public policies

Based on ESS-7 data, this paper focuses on two attitudinal dimensions about public policies related to immigration: how many can come and who can come. In this context, the hypothesis concerning the bi-dimensionality of racism was supported and, as predicted, biological racism is more antinormative than cultural racism. Both biological and cultural racism predict opposition to immigration and adhesion to ethnicist criteria on the selection of immigrants. As hypothesised, the relationship between racism and opposition to immigration and adhesion to ethnicist criteria is mediated by threat perceptions. Specifically, symbolic and realistic threats mediate the effect of biological and cultural racism on opposition to immigration and on ethnicist criteria. The hypothesis that the mediation effects are moderated by the country’s quality of democracy was supported, indicating that the mediation effects are stronger in countries with a higher quality of democracy. Results are discussed within the context of racism theories as a bi-dimensional concept and in the framework of the role of legitimation processes in social discrimination.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio