University of Twente Student Theses
Dutch people's attitudes towards different immigration groups and immigration policies
Blok, Puck Petronella (2024) Dutch people's attitudes towards different immigration groups and immigration policies.
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| Abstract: | Purpose: There is a larger percentage of people worldwide who would prefer their national immigration to decrease instead of keeping it at the current levels. However often all immigrants are generalized into one group, when there are indeed major differences among them. This study investigated whether the attitudes of Dutch citizens toward immigration policies can be explained by the beliefs they have towards immigrants and if the immigration group, EU-immigrants or refugees, could make a difference. Methods: An online questionnaire with experimental manipulation was used in this research. There were two versions of the questionnaire, one version about refugees and one about EU-immigrants. A total of 155 people participated in this research, all examined on the following independent variables: threat of the labor market, threat to the socioeconomic wellbeing, threat to the cultural values and threat to the Dutch language. The dependent variable was a scale on the stance on immigration policies. Results: This research revealed that refugees had a slightly higher mean only on the stance towards immigration policies. EU immigrants held more negative views on the threat of societal enrichment, socioeconomic threats, and threat of the cultural values. There were significant differences in beliefs about the threat to the labor market and threats to the language threats, favoring refugees. Finally, there was a link between the beliefs about immigrants and attitude towards immigration policies, with a stronger relationship between these variables in the refugee's group than the EU-immigrant group. Conclusion: From this research we can conclude that beliefs indeed explain attitudes people have and that type of immigrant group matters in this relationship.Even though that EU immigrants had more negative beliefs on all independent variables than refugees, it does show a stronger relationship between beliefs and attitudes among refugees. However, with a larger and more equal sample size, it is expected that a significant difference is indeed even more measurable, with an expected outcome of more positive beliefs about the refugees. Keywords: immigration policy, immigrants, anti-immigration; attitudes; beliefs, refugees; immigrants from the EU; Dutch citizens. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 05 communication studies |
| Programme: | Communication Studies BSc (56615) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/100685 |
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