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The Blurred Eyes that Perceive Immigrants: Investigating Attitudes towards Immigrants in Africa
Hatungimana, William
Hatungimana, William
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Abstract
This study asks whether attitudes towards immigrants can be studied in low-income countries with a mechanism that is also generalizable across high-income countries or vice versa. I propose a theory driven by individual value preference because the scarcity of perfect information complicates the claim that attitudes towards immigrants are driven by rational choice (rationality)-oriented material factors. Since the actual impact of immigrants is unknown to the uninformed public, individuals with different value preferences will respond differently to immigrants. Values influence both support and opposition to immigration. Prospect theory proposes that humans are risk-averse in the event of uncertainty—they are likely to avoid the risk of losing what they have, even when the gains from taking the risk are higher with little at stake (Kahneman and Tversky 1989). Therefore, I contend that risk aversion behaviors drive attitudes towards immigrants. The risk of loss or deterioration of one’s value becomes the driver of attitudes towards immigrants. I argue that the public does not have information about the actual impact of immigration, whether cultural or economic. Therefore, the rational choice model cannot apply because the public does not have information on which to base their cost and benefit calculation. Thus, risk aversion influences the fear of losing one’s convenient (value) status quo. By convenient (value) status quo, I mean one’s preferred position on an issue. The position is either acquired or a characteristic of one’s personality. I use this mechanism to study attitudes towards immigrants in low-income nations, although the mechanism also applies to high-income countries. One contribution of this study is to (1) explore the material and symbolic factors’ influence on anti-immigration sentiments. This study's second (2) contribution is examining the influence of openness to values on attitudes towards immigrants. I explore the effect of openness to values and protectionist sentiments to find consistent cross-country predictors of attitudes towards immigrants in Southern Africa. This study's third (3) and most important contribution is providing a mechanism that facilitates exploring attitudes towards immigrants beyond advanced industrial democracies. Firstly, I analyze the relationship between parties' (meso) promotion of cultural superiority and support for immigration policies across the continent of Africa (Chapter 2). Secondly, I focus on Southern Africa. I analyze the relationship between the individual (micro) and country-level (macro) variables and attitudes towards immigrants. I investigate the relationship between openness to values and protectionist sentiments and attitudes towards immigrants and the relationship between unemployment rate, immigration rate, political rhetoric and immigration policy, and attitude towards immigrants (Chapter 3). Moreover, I take on country cases. I examine the relationship between dissatisfaction with government performance and attitude towards immigrants in South Africa (Chapter 4). Finally, I conduct a comparative analysis of Botswana and South Africa, examining the relationship between national identity as a function of nation-building and attitudes towards immigrants (Chapter 5). I look at how a multiculturalist and assimilationist national identity influence attitudes towards immigrants. This is my fourth (4) contribution. The results are promising and encouraging and suggest expanding the scope of the study of attitudes towards immigrants to low-income countries. Although context can differ depending on differences in political development between low- and high-income countries, there are commonalities that we can draw when we use a generalizable analytic framework. Therefore, using an analytical framework like the convenient (value) status quo increases the likelihood of generalizability
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Date
2022-08-31
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University of Kansas
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Keywords
Political science, African studies, Africa, Attitudes, Immigrants, Material Factors, Southern African, Symbolic Factors