Between solidarity and competitive threat? The ambivalence of anti-immigrant attitudes among ethnic minorities

Attitudes toward immigrants are typically investigated from the perspective of the dominant native majority group versus the subordinate ethnic minority group, but there are no apparent reasons why established minority groups would be exempt of negative attitudes towards new immigrant groups. This article investigates the roots of anti-immigrant attitudes among Belgians of Turkish and Moroccan descent. For that purpose, we analyze survey data from the Belgian Ethnic Minorities Elections Study 2014. Our results confirm that negative predispositions toward the arrival of new immigrants in general and Eastern Europeans in particular are also present among Turkish and Moroccan Belgians. Furthermore, we find that feelings of unfair treatment shape anti-immigrant attitudes in important ways. However, the direction of the relationship (positive vs. negative) depends crucially on the specific setting of unfair treatment. While perceived unfair treatment in the labor market arouses interminority hostility, experiences of unfair treatment by the government or in daily life lead to positive attitudes towards newcomers. Identification with the nation rather than with the ethnic group is significantly linked to more negative attitudes towards new immigrants in general (but not towards Eastern European immigrants). We furthermore find that the strength of the relationship between unfair treatment/identity and interminority attitudes depends on the particular immigrant group being evaluated.