Moving towards a more tolerant society? Attitudes towards immigrants in French politics

Abstract

Attitudes towards immigrants have played a major role in French politics in the last 50 years. Understanding how these attitudes are structured and what makes people become more tolerant or intolerant of immigrants appears therefore essential. In the literature, five hypotheses have been tested: the interest hypothesis, the cognitive hypothesis, the authoritarian attitudinal system hypothesis, the contact hypothesis and the contextual hypothesis. Recent studies have emphasized the importance of context. This article revisits these hypotheses using the French European Values Study data sets. Our results confirm the increase in tolerance of immigrants over the last 20 years. Disentangling the attitudinal system to which these opinions belong allows us to claim that this growth of tolerance is, at least partly, an effect of the individualization of society.

Appendix

List of attitudinal scales and indicators included in the regression analysis

• Left–right self-positioning: scale in four positions – 1–4, 5–6, 7–10, non-answer and non-positioning.

• Demands for more authority: index composed of four questions – confidence in the police and the army, considering that maintaining order in the nation is a priority, wishing greater respect for authority in the future. Each indicator is considered dichotomously (0 or 1), therefore a 5-point scale (from 0 to 4). Cronbach's α=0.54.

• Attitude towards the death penalty: 10-point scale. We did not mingle attitude towards the death penalty with the authoritarian index, as this variable is not strongly correlated with the four other variables.

• National pride: four categories – very proud, quite proud, not very proud and not at all proud.

• Support for individualization: index composed of 20 variables – finding important to do exactly what you want at leisure time; following instructions at work only when convinced first; considering that a good job is a job that meets one's abilities, in which you have the opportunity to use initiative and to have a say in important decisions; thinking that having a successful marriage, having some time for one's own friends and for personal hobbies is important; approval of women who want to have a child as a single parent outside a stable relationship with a man; agreeing that people should decide for themselves whether or not to have children and that homosexual couples should be able to adopt children; choosing independence, tolerance and respect for other people as qualities that children should be encouraged to learn at home; approving abortion when a married couple does not want to have any more children; thinking that homosexuality, divorce, suicide, euthanasia and adultery can be justified; considering as top priorities that in the coming years France should give people more say in important government decisions and protect freedom of speech. The scale was built using a principal component analysis. We kept as a synthetic scale of individualization the interviewees’ score on the first factor (16.8 of the explained variance). Cronbach's α=0.70.

• Support for antidemocratic systems: on the basis of four variables – considering having a democratic system as a bad thing; the country being ruled by the army as a good thing; having a strong leader who does not have to bother with parliament and elections and experts, not government, making decisions according to what they think is best for the country as a good thing. Each antidemocratic answer is counted as 1. The index goes from 0 to 4. Cronbach's α=0.53.

• Support for materialistic values: index based on seven variables – considering that a good job is a job with a good pay and good job security; considering that the fight against rising prices is a priority; choosing thrift, saving money and things, as a quality children should be encouraged to learn at home; claiming that for a good successful marriage good housing and an adequate income are important; refusing to give money to prevent environmental pollution; acknowledging the importance of money and material possessions. Each indicator is considered dichotomously (0 or 1), therefore an 8-point scale (from 0 to 7). Cronbach's α=0.42.

• Fears of the European Union: on the basis of five 10-point scales. From very afraid to not afraid at all that the building of Europe corresponds to a loss of social security, the loss of national identity and culture, France paying more and more to the European Union, a loss of power in the world for France and the loss of jobs in France. The index is the sum of the positions on each scale (from 5 to 50). Cronbach's α=0.85.

• To be in favor of cultural liberalism: index composed of eight 10-point scales (from 1 never justified to 10 always justified), which measure the acceptance of adultery, homosexuality, having casual sex, prostitution, euthanasia, suicide, abortion and divorce. The index is the sum of the positions on each scale (from 8 to 80, Cronbach's α=0.82).

• Trust in others: people who believe that most people can be trusted opposed to those who think that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people.

• Belonging to voluntary organizations: from a list of 15 categories of voluntary organizations, Cronbach's α=0.47.

• Altruistic claims: index build on five positioning scales (from 1 to 5), which measures the extent to which people feel concerned about the living conditions of elderly people, unemployed people, immigrants, sick and disabled people, and children in poor families in France. The index is the sum of the positions of each scale (from 5 to 25, Cronbach's α=0.84).

In our binary logistic regressions, ‘income’ and ‘professional status’ are used to test the interest hypothesis, level of education allows us to test the cognitive hypothesis and place of living to test the contact hypothesis. The thermostatic hypothesis is not tested throughout the regression. All other scales and indicators correspond to different versions of the attitudinal hypothesis.