The integration conundrum: An intergroup relations perspective on majority support for inclusion versus exclusion of immigrant minorities

The proposed research project addresses ‘the integration
conundrum’ as an important cause of public concern and political
contention in today’s Europe. The proposal zooms in on the less
well-researched acculturation views of the majority: do majority
citizens expect minorities to engage mainly or exclusively with the
mainstream culture, with the heritage culture, or do they expect them
to combine both cultures? The project aims to discover when and
how intergroup fit and misfit on integration will politicize and drive
support for policy and political action. The proposed intergroup
perspective is innovative because it combines distinct sources of
acculturation (mis)fit and examine their unique and joint impact on
intergroup conflict and its political fallout on both sides of the
ideological struggle over immigrant integration. Thus, the project
additionally aims to explain support for policies and actions that
challenge the exclusion of immigrants and promote social change
towards more equal and inclusive intergroup relations. A strong
contextualized approach of majority views on acculturation and the
way these views politicize or not is suggested, by fully taking into
account intersections with social stratification both at the individual
level and at the local level of municipalities and neighborhoods.
Therefore, the proposed research uniquely combines survey data
and methods with embedded experiments enriched with
administrative and geospatial contextual data.