National identity and the attitude towards foreigners in multi-national states: The case of Belgium

Abstract

As an example of a multinational state in which various nationalities compete for public support, Belgium is a case in point. The citizens can identify with the official Belgian identity or with sub-national identities in Flanders and in Wallonia. How are these identities of the citizens related to their attitudes toward foreigners? Are citizens who have a strong identification with the national state (Belgium) or with the regions (Flanders or Wallonia) more likely to adopt hostile attitudes toward foreigners? A structural modelling approach was applied to the data of the 1991 election survey to map out the relationship between national identity and the attitude towards foreigners in Belgium. This shows that both attitudes are inversely related in Flanders and Wallonia. In Flanders, citizens with a strong Flemish identification tend to have a negative attitude towards foreigners, while those with a strong Belgian identification are more positive. In Wallonia, the stronger the Walloon identity, the more positive the attitude towards foreigners; the stronger the Belgian identity, the more negative the attitude towards foreigners. This finding indicates that the relationship between both variables is not intrinsic but is at least to some extent determined by the social representation of the national identity in the social and political context.

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