Solidarity or Threat? How Discrimination Experience and Assimilation Pressure Shape Minority Attitudes toward Immigration in Western Europe

Scholars have paid considerable attention to the attitudes of host societies toward immigration. However, we know relatively little about whether minority members themselves support immigration more or less than majority group members do, and what affects such inter-minority attitudes. Drawing on two competing theoretical perspectives, the minority solidarity thesis and intergroup threat theory, we argue that individual-level threats to minority group members´ identity in the form of discrimination experience make them more supportive of immigration, while structural identity threats in the form of assimilation pressure have the opposite effect. Based on evidence from the European Social Survey in 15 West European Countries as well as an original survey experiment we find support for our theoretical expectations. Minority members who report having experienced discrimination are more supportive of immigration than those who do not, and minority group members in countries with high assimilation pressure are less supportive of immigration than those in countries where such pressure is low.