Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic Intermarriage in the Netherlands: a MultiLevel Approach

1
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• ERCOMER March 2007

Jochem Tolsma (Radboud University) Marcel
Lubbers (Radboud University) Marcel Coenders
(Radboud University)
2
Outline
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Part 1 Discussion of paper
• Part 2 Contact to prejudice reduction or
  proximity to group threat

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Part 1
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• In this paper, we set out to explain the views of
  the ethnic majority group towards ethnic
  intermarriage.
• To shed light on the mechanism by which
  competition leads to antagonistic views.
• To provide new empirical test for Ethnic
  Competition Theory
• Why opposition to ethnic intermarriage?
• Indicator for cohesion within society.
• Very likely that processes of ethnic exclusionism
  will show up

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ECT
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Ethnic Competition Theory poses that ethnic
  competition enhances negative sentiments against
  ethnic out-groups.
• Ethnic Competition Theory poses that ethnic
  competition for economic resources, cultural
  resources, power, and identity, either at the
  individual or group level, actual or perceived,
  enhances negative sentiments against ethnic
  out-groups such as, exclusionism, ethnocentrism,
  and prejudice by provoking both threat to ones
  own interests and to group interests.

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ECT and opposition to ethnic intermarriage
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• A marriage between an ethnic migrant and a member
  of the host country can be considered as the
  final step of the integration process for the
  migrant in question.
• Mixed marriages are an indicator of cohesion
  within society. Opposition to ethnic heterogamy
  indicates a stagnating integration process and
  undermines cohesion.
• Opposition to ethnic intermarriage is a form of
  ethnic exclusionism.
• The choice for a partner is a context in which
  processes of ethnic in- or exclusion are likely
  to be salient.
• Moreover, to explore whether there are group
  specific exclusionistic reactions we will
  investigate opposition to ethnic heterogamy in
  relation to Turks, Moroccans, and Surinamese, the
  main ethnic groups in the Netherlands.

6
ECT and Research Question 1
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Within the competitive threat research tradition
• groups are most often thought of as the people of
  a nation.
• the nation is considered to be an important
  economic and cultural unit.
• The national ethnic competitive environment
  explains cross-national variations in
  antagonistic attitudes and trends in these
  attitudes within nations.
• Less attention to explanations for regional
  variances in antagonistic attitudes (especially
  in Europe).
• Competitive environment varies across
  neighborhoods and municipalities.
• Moreover, people may develop a local group
  identity.
• Some empirical support for the link between the
  local competitive environment and antagonistic
  attitudes.
• RQ1 To what extent does the competitive
  environment of neighborhoods and municipalities
  affect opposition to ethnic intermarriage next to
  individual characteristics.

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ECT and Research Question 2
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Most often used indicators for competitive
  threat size of the foreign population and
  economic conditions.
• If prejudicial attitudes resulting from the
  presence of ethnic minorities are a threat
  response, the dynamics of this threat response
  should be made explicit.
• Assessing the importance of types of ethnic
  competition remains to be done.
• Different forms of competition economic,
  cultural, power, physical, identity
• RQ2 What is the relative impact of different
  types of ethnic competition (i.e. economic,
  cultural, and physical) on opposition to ethnic
  intermarriage?

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Previous research
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• The effects of relative group sizes and other
  characteristics of the living environment on
  antagonistic attitudes are inconsistent across
• the antagonistic view in question,
• the unit of measurement of the locale,
• the specific out-group in question.
• This contribution
• Opposition to ethnic intermarriage main focus but
  explanatory model is compared for other
  antagonistic views
• We adopt a three-level design individual,
  neighborhood, municipality
• We have information on opposition to ethnic
  intermarriage regarding Turks, Moroccans, and
  Surinamese

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Theoretical Expectations
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Individual level expectations
• Age
• Sex
• Educational attainment
• Social status
• Religiosity
• Social origin

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Theoretical Expectations
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Contextual level expectations
• Actual or perceived ethnic competition induces
  ethnic exclusionism.
• Opposition to ethnic intermarriage is a form of
  ethnic exclusionism.
• ? Actual or perceived ethnic competition induces
  opposition to ethnic intermarriage.

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Hypothesis 1
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Actual or perceived ethnic competition induces
  opposition to ethnic intermarriage.
• Neighborhoods and municipalities are economic and
  cultural units with distinct competitive
  characteristics.
• Opposition to ethnic intermarriage varies across
  neighborhoods and municipalities.
• (1. Regional variance hypothesis)

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Hypothesis 2
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Actual or perceived ethnic competition induces
  opposition to ethnic intermarriage.
• (Changes in) relative out-group sizes within
  neighborhoods and municipalities are related to
  actual and perceived ethnic competition.
• (Changes in) relative out-group sizes within
  neighborhoods and municipalities induce
  opposition to ethnic intermarriage.
• (2. Relative group size hypothesis)

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Hypotheses 3, 4, and 5
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• (Changes in) the socio-economic status of the
  neighborhood and municipality are indicators for
  economic competition at the neighborhood and
  municipality level.
• The presence of mosques and Muslim school within
  neighborhoods and municipalities are indicators
  for cultural competition at the neighborhood and
  municipality level.
• Crime rates within neighborhoods and
  municipalities are indicators for physical threat
  at the neighborhood and municipality level.

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Hypotheses 3, 4, and 5
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• The lower the socio-economic status of the
  locale, the more opposition to ethnic
  intermarriage at the locale.
• (3. Economic environment hypothesis).
• The more mosques and Muslim school present at the
  locale, the more opposition to ethnic
  intermarriage at the locale.
• (4. Cultural environment hypothesis).
• The higher the crime rates in a locale, the
  higher the opposition to ethnic intermarriage.
• (5. Physical environment hypothesis).

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Hypothesis 6
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Socially disintegrated individuals have a
  stronger need to attachment to the ethnic
  in-group than socially integrated individuals and
  increase their ethnic in-group favorable
  attitudes and negative views towards ethnic
  out-groups
• Social cohesion will be lower within
  neighborhoods and municipalities that are
  characterized by higher moving mobility rates.
• Residents in neighborhoods and municipalities
  which are characterized by high rates of moving
  mobility will express higher levels of opposition
  to inter ethnic marriages than residents in
  neighborhoods and municipalities with lower rates
  of moving mobility.
• (6. Cohesive environment hypothesis).

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Hypothesis 7
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Proximity to members of ethnic out-groups leads
  to contact with ethnic out-group members.
• Contact with ethnic out-group members leads to
  prejudice reduction.
• The larger the size of the ethnic out-group
  within neighborhoods and municipalities the lower
  the opposition to ethnic intermarriage.
• (7. Contact hypothesis)

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Data
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• NKPS (2002/2003)
• response rate 38
• Ni6095, Nnb2096, Nmp437
• Dependent variable(s)
• Would it bother you if one of your children
  decided to marry someone of Turkish/Moroccan/Suri
  namese descent?
• (4) bother me a lot
• (3) bother me a little
• (2) neutral
• (1) not bother me
• (0) not bother me at all

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Data
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• The three items formed a mokken scale, a
  cumulative measurement scale.
• Respondents are most opposed to an ethnic
  intermarriage with Moroccans followed by an
  ethnic intermarriage with Turks.
• The constituted ethnic intermarriage scale runs
  from 0-12 and higher scores indicate more
  opposition to ethnic heterogamy.
• Mean 5.9 standard deviation 3.19 skewness
  -0.11.
• Approximately 30 of our respondents is bothered
  if one of their children decides to marry someone
  from either Turkish, Moroccan, or Surinamese
  descent.

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Data
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Independent variables (individual level)
• Age (years)
• Sex
• Education (years)
• Occupational status (EGP 7 category version, plus
  student, housewives, unemployed, retired)
• Religiosity
• Church attendance (times per year)
• Denomination (Roman Catholic, Dutch Reformed
  Church and Calvinists (synodal), other Calvinists
  denominations, other Christian denominations,
  other denominations, and missing)
• Social origin
• Parental education (years)
• Fathers occupational status (EGP 7 category
  version)
• Mothers denomination

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Data
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Independent variables (contextual level)
• Out-group sizes
• Percentage non-western ethnic minorities
• Percentage Turks
• Percentage Moroccans
• Percentage Surinamese
• Change in percentage non-western ethnic
  minorities (2001-1999)
• Socio-economic disadvantage (2001), Principal
  Component Analysis
• mean income of income recipients
• percentage income recipients with a low income
• percentage income recipients between 15 and 64
  years of age living on public benefit.
• Change in Socio-economic disadvantage (2001-1999)

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Data
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Independent variables (contextual level)
• Crime rates
• Victims of burglary Constructed from Dutch
  Police Population Monitor surveys (1999, 2000,
  and 2001). A count of burglary victims within the
  spatial units neighborhoods and municipalities
  divided by the total PMM respondents who lived
  within these localities.
• Crime statistics Constructed from the Dutch
  police registration system (2000, 2001, 2002,
  2003, and 2004). This aggregation leads to
  2,688,262 recorded offences for which the
  location of the crime scene was known. We counted
  the total offences, with the exception of petty
  theft and traffic offences. We divided these
  figures to the total inhabitants of the locale,
  as reported by the Dutch bureau of Statistics.

22
Data
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Independent variables (contextual level)
• Number of mosques and Muslim schools within
  locale
• An initial data file on the location of mosques
  was kindly provided by N. Landman of the
  University of Utrecht. Locations of Muslim
  schools were provided by ISBO (www.deisbo.nl).
  Students updated the datafile. In total 454
  mosques and 39 Muslim schools

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Data
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Independent variables (contextual level)
• Relative inwards moving mobility
• the amount of people entering a neighborhood from
  another neighborhood per 1000 inhabitants of the
  destination neighborhood
• The issue of selective in- and out-migration
• Selective in-migration migrants moving into
  tolerant neighborhoods and municipalities.
• Selective out-migration natives with high levels
  of antagonistic views moving out of neighborhoods
  and municipalities with large out-group sizes
  white flight.
• Inwards en outwards moving mobility rates have
  been used to take into account selective in- and
  out-migration.
• Repeat analysis on (non-)movers

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Results
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach
25
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach
Table 1 Bivariate correlations between
neighborhood characteristics and mean levels of
opposition to ethnic intermarriage
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ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach
Table 2 Bivariate correlations between
municipality characteristics and mean levels of
opposition to ethnic intermarriage
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ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach
Table 3 Variance components of hierarchical
random intercept models estimating opposition to
ethnic intermarriage
28
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach
Table 4 hierarchical random intercept models
estimating opposition to ethnic intermarriage
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Change in out-group size
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Different operationalization of change in
  out-group size.
• 2001-1999 2001-1997 2001-1995
• 2001-1999/2001
• Curvilinear
• threshold
• If minorities in 2001lt mean(minorities in 2001)
• change in out-group size0
• else
• change in out-group size 2001-1999.
• Results
• percentage ethnic minorities (MP) p -0.017
• change in percentage ethnic minorities (MP) p
  0.175

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Robustness
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Opposition to an ethnically mixed marriage with a
  specific ethnic out-group
• Group sizes of Turks, Moroccans, and Surinamese
  at the municipality level do no affect opposition
  to heterogamy with Turks, Moroccans, and
  Surinamese (differently).
• The issue of selective out-migration
• No different results for movers and non-movers
• Results compared to different antagonistic views
• residence permit for someone whose life is at
  risk
• there are too many migrants
• Denomination most important for opposition to
  ethnic intermarriage
• Explanatory model for opposition to ethnic
  intermarriage and there are too many migrants
  very similar

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Conclusions 1
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Individual level characteristics in agreement
  with ECT
• Social origin contributes to explanation of
  opposition to ethnic intermarriage
• Opposition to ethnic intermarriage overlaps with
  opposition to religious intermarriage
• Only minor regional variance in opposition to
  ethnic intermarriage
• Most of this variance is due to composition
  effects (religion)
• Municipality is more important economic and
  cultural unit than neighborhood
• Relative out-group sizes are not (or even
  negatively) related to opposition to ethnic
  intermarriage once relevant individual level
  characteristics are controlled for.
• An increase in out-group size only induces
  opposition to ethnic intermarriage for
  individuals living in municipalities with already
  large proportions of ethnic out-groups.

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Conclusions 2
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Economic competition sole type of competition
  that induces opposition to ethnic intermarriage.
• High rates of inwards moving mobility at the
  neighborhood level related to lower levels of
  opposition to ethnic intermarriage.
• Social cohesion within neighborhoods and
  municipalities not important?
• Inwards moving mobility indicator for locale
  popularity?
• Selective migration?

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End of Part 1
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach
34
Part 2
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Proximity to contact, contact to prejudice
  reduction
• Versus
• Proximity to actual and perceived competitive
  threat, to prejudice induction

35
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach
Do you (want to) know Abdel and Farid?
Do you feel threatened by Abdel and Farid?
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In favour of contact theory
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Proximity to contact
• E.g. Wagner 2006 bivariate correlation is
  positive
• Contact to prejudice
• Pettigrew 2006 average correlation is negative
• Proximity in living environment to prejudice
  reduction
• Wagner 2006 (controlled for age, sex, education)
  partial correlation is negative
• Problems
• Contact to prejudice
• Causality
• Proximity to prejudice reduction
• Tolsma 2007
• bivariate correlation is negative
• controlled for age, sex, education partial
  correlation is negative
• Controlled for change in socio-economic status
  no significant partial correlation
• Controlled for change in out-group size negative
  correlation (boundary of significance)
• Wagner 2006 not controlled for individual
  contact

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In favour of ECT
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Proximity to perceived threat and antagonistic
  views
• Instead of proximity, (increase in) ethnic
  out-group size
• At the national level Scheepers, Coenders,
  Semyonov
• At smaller geographical regions Quillian
• Problems
• Results regarding out-group sizes at the
  neighborhood level and municipality level
  inconsistent
• Rather change in out-group size than actual
  out-group size
• Tolsma 2007 not change per se but change when
  out-group is already large
• Issue of selective migration
• Not controlled for individual contact experiences

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The battle
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Contact wins at the individual level
• ECT wins at the national level
• Indecisive at the neighborhood and municipality
  level
• Both mechanisms at the same time?
• None of the mechanisms?

39
Future research
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• Longitudinal design
• Where and when did you meet ethnic out-group
  members?
• When and why did you move into, out of, this
  neighborhood, municipality?

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Thank you!
ERCOMER March 2007
Ethnic Competition and Opposition to Ethnic
Intermarriage in the Netherlands a Multi-Level
Approach

• More information at http//oase.uci.kun.nl/joch
  emt/