Author:

Keywords:

1605 Policy and Administration, 1608 Sociology, Political Science & Public Administration, 4407 Policy and administration, 4408 Political science, 4410 Sociology

Abstract:

Due to the increased presence of migrants in Western societies, socioeconomic issues like the (re)distribution of incomes, social benefits and government aid are more and more framed as intergroup conflicts. A central concern is that the ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity caused by migration erodes solidarity because people are no longer able to identify with their fellow citizens (Alesina, Glaeser, & Sacerdote, 2001; Freeman, 1986). The relation between migration and public support for redistribution and government intervention has been studied extensively. Yet, very few studies have investigated these issues from the perspective of migrants. People with a migration background often have complex social identities that are based on belonging to both a specific ethnic group and to the nation of residence (Fleischmann and Phalet 2016). Previous studies showed that this dual identity is related to immigrants’ political engagement and collective action (Simon and Ruhs 2008), however it remains a question whether it affects the way they think about interventions of the national government. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the socioeconomic attitudes of people with a migration background by investigating the role of social identification. In order to do this, we will perform a multivariate analysis on data from the Belgian Ethnic Minorities Election Study 2014 (BEMES), a survey conducted among Belgians of Turkish (N=447) and Moroccan (N=434) descent containing questions on socioeconomic attitudes, and feelings of identity.