What drives the public opinion on asylum policy in the Netherlands?

G.S. Bolt, Eva Wetsteijn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Among the citizens of Western Europe, Dutch residents appear to be the least supportive of a generous judgement of asylum applications. In line with the perceived ethnic threat theory, people with a higher level of education advocate a more generous judgement of asylum applications than people with a low level of education. Surprisingly, income has the opposite effect. The effect of the (perceived) presence of out-groups members on the attitudes towards
asylum seekers appears to vary between different scale levels. The higher people estimate the size of the immigrant groups at the national level, the less support they express for a generous judgement of asylum applications. At the neighbourhood level, more interethnic exposure leads
to more support for a generous judgement of asylum applications. This may indicate that the ethnic competition theory works at a macro level, while at the neighbourhood level the contact hypothesis applies.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)513-524
Number of pages12
JournalTijdschrift Voor Economische en Sociale Geografie
Volume109
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Keywords

  • asylum policy, contact hypothesis, ethnic threat

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