Principle and Prejudice: Nationalism, Values, and Attitudes Toward Racial and Religious Minorities in Quebec

Large-scale immigration to western democracies has generated debates about how to integrate newcomers. Integration poses a particular challenge to sub-state minority nations whose citizens are more prone to perceiving immigrants as cultural and political threats. Attitudes toward immigrants are often underpinned by attitudes toward the ethnic minority groups to which immigrants belong. This study investigates citizen attitudes toward racial and religious minorities in the Canadian province of Quebec. Using large-N data from the 2014 Quebec Vote Compass project, the study examines whether antipathy in the province is characterized by generalized ethnocentrism or principled opposition to specific groups. It also examines whether antipathy is exacerbated by cultural anxiety and nationalism. The results show that negativity in Quebec is directed toward religious, not racial minorities, and that this antipathy is exacerbated by cultural anxiety and nationalism. Further, the results show that opposition to specific practices largely accounts for Quebeckers’ religion-based antipathies.