Citizenship representations, group indispensability and attitudes towards immigrants’ rights

Abstract

Social psychological research has distinguished between ethnic and civic conceptions of citizenship and examined the differential associations of these conceptions with perceived out-group competition and threats to explain attitudes towards immigrants. In contrast, the current study examines two dimensions of group indispensability: functional indispensability and identity indispensability. In a survey study conducted among a national sample of native Dutch we found that the endorsement of ethnic citizenship is related to weaker support for immigrants’ social rights because of a lower sense of functional indispensability and of identity indispensability. In contrast, the endorsement of civic citizenship was associated with higher acceptance of immigrant rights because of a stronger sense of functional and identity indispensability of immigrants.