Attitudes Toward Religious Minorities and Religious Accommodation in Sub-State Minority Nations

Large-scale immigration to western democracies in recent years has generated debates about how to integrate newcomers. Given that religious minorities represent a substantial proportion of newcomers to North America and Europe, much public debate has centered on the unique integration implications of these groups. Integration poses a particular challenge to sub-state minority nations where citizens are more prone to perceive immigrants as threatening. This study investigates whether citizens of the Canadian province of Quebec are unique in their opinions toward religious minorities and religious accommodation. Relying on Making Electoral Democracy Work’s (MEDW) 2015 survey of Canadian attitudes, we assess the extent to which francophone Quebeckers’ are more negative than other Canadians when it comes to religious minorities and accommodation. To the extent that they are, the study seeks to understand whether such negativity is grounded principally in racial prejudice or concerns about culture. Combining MEDW data with large-N provincial and federal Vote Compass data, we find that although Quebeckers are indeed more negative toward religious minorities and less favourable to religious accommodation, these attitudes are couched in concerns over secularism and cultural security, not generalized racism. These outcomes bear particular implications for European sub-state minority nations in light of the recent influx of newcomers from the Middle-East.