Some attributes of cultural distance tend to be perceived as stronger signals in situations involving closer social interactions with immigrants
In the study “Cultural distance through the lens of social closeness and individual experiences with diversity: Unveiling attitudes toward recent immigrants in Germany using a factorial survey experiment” to appear in Soziale Welt, Stefanie Heyne, Jana Kuhlemann and Irena Kogan examine whether the impact of cultural distance—measured by the country of origin, religious denomination, and religiosity of a hypothetical immigrant—varies depending on the nature of social interactions. Specifically, they considered whether respondents would engage with this person in a closer or more distant situation, such as marrying into the family versus moving into the neighborhood.
The findings indicate a lower acceptance of Syrian immigrants compared to French immigrants in both scenarios. However, this effect is more pronounced when the immigrant is marrying a family member compared to when they are moving into the neighborhood. A similar pattern of weaker acceptance in cases of marriage is observed for Ukrainian immigrants, although they generally experience higher levels of acceptance compared to Syrian immigrants. Moreover, the study identifies a statistically significant lower acceptance of Muslim immigrants marrying into the family compared to those moving into the neighborhood, aligning with our expectations. Interestingly, this pattern did not extend to Jewish immigrants when compared to Christians. Lastly, it is noteworthy that highly religious immigrants receive similarly low levels of acceptance, regardless of whether the social interaction implies high or low levels of social distance.
Preferences of Children of Immigrants Regarding Partnerships with Refugees
A new study in the Zeitschrift für Soziologie examines the preferences of young people from the majority group and minority ethnic groups in Germany regarding partnerships with recent refugees from Syria and Afghanistan. On the basis of a factorial survey experiment implemented in the year 2022 in the 9th wave of the CILS4EU-DE data, Irena Kogan, Stefanie Heyne, Jana Kuhlemann, and Chadi Abdul-Rida demonstrate that young people in Germany are much less favourable to partnerships with refugees compared to partnerships with Germans, irrespective of whether the latter are born in Germany to German-born parents or whether their parents were migrants. Of all respondents, young people who either themselves or whose parents come from Turkey are most opposed to partnerships with refugees. Particularly those who tend to extensively consume Turkish media and those who identify more strongly with their origin country are more negative about partnerships with refugees.
