Laurent Licata

Several European countries have introduced integration programs that oblige immigrants to adopt the host culture. While research has shown that members of national majority groups consider host culture adoption by immigrants as desirable, the effect of making host culture adoption mandatory on attitudes toward immigrants has so far not been investigated. We argue that perceiving host culture adoption as mandatory yields less positive evaluation of immigrants than voluntary adoption. Moreover, we contend that this effect is explained by a lower perception of identification with the host nation by immigrants in the former case than in the latter. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a first study in France (N = 63) and a second preregistered study in Switzerland (N = 110). In both studies, participants received information about an immigrant who adopted the host culture either voluntarily or as part of a mandatory integration program. As expected, granting civic rights to the immigrant is perceived as more legitimate in the voluntary adoption condition than in the mandatory adoption condition, and this effect was mediated by perception of host nation identification. These results highlight the role of the situational context of acculturation practices in social judgments about immigrants. Implications for mandatory integration policies are discussed.

Immigrant naturalization is a rite of passage, making assimilationist attitudes particularly pronounced among host nationals. Three experimental studies investigate whether heritage culture maintenance violate expectations that citizenship should be deserved by proving strong attachment to the host nation (i.e., neoliberal communitarianism). Study 1 (N = 293) demonstrates that naturalization applicants’ high degree of heritage culture maintenance impairs application evaluations. Perceived attachment to the host nation and citizenship deservingness mediated this effect. Study 2 ( N = 220) replicates results across two national contexts and reveals that heritage culture maintenance impairs evaluations only among naturalization applicants from devalued countries. Study 3 (N = 117) manipulates attachment to the host nation and shows that perceived citizenship deservingness mediates the negative effects of naturalization applicants’ low attachment to the host nation on application evaluations. Overall, assimilationist attitudes among host nationals are best explained by the combination of neoliberal and communitarian criteria of evaluation

The present study examines current social representations associated with the origins of the Great War, a major event that has profoundly affected Europe. A survey conducted in 20 European countries (N = 1906 students in social sciences) shows a high consensus: The outbreak of the war is attributed to the warring nations' leaders while the responsibility of the populations is minimized. Building on the concept of social representation of history (Liu & Hilton, 2005), we suggest that the social representations of the Great War fulfill social psychological functions in contemporary Europe. We suggest that WWI may function as a charter for European integration. Their content also suggests a desire to distinguish a positively valued ingroup ("the people") from powerful elites, construed as an outgroup.

Despite the current societal emergency, little is known about the acculturation processes undergone by Syrian and Iraqi asylum seekers. The present paper investigates their early-stage acculturation preferences in relation to their perception of majority members’ acculturation expectations and to their settlement intentions. 103 Syrian and Iraqi male asylum seekers were recruited during the peak of the 2015 “refugee crisis” in a provisional reception centre and completed a brief questionnaire. Results showed that asylum seekers reported a high willingness to participate in the host society and to adopt the host culture, while maintaining their culture of origin. Moreover, as predicted, asylum seekers’ settlement intentions and their perceptions of majority members’ acculturation expectations were key predictors of their own acculturation preferences. Implications for integration policies are discussed. Open Access : http://www.rips-irsp.com/articles/10.5334/irsp.49/

Research has shown that members of the national majority group generally consider host culture adoption by immigrants as desirable. However, so far, this positive effect of perceived host culture adoption on attitudes toward immigrants has not been explained. We argue that majority members infer national identification of immigrants from their cultural adoption. Moreover, we predict that this inference should decrease majority members' feeling of ingroup threat, therefore also improving their attitudes toward immigrants. We conducted two experimental studies. In Study 1, majority members who were presented an immigrant group that adopted the host culture held more positive attitudes than those who were presented one that disregarded it. In line with our hypothesis, this effect was fully mediated by perceived identification of the immigrants with the host nation, itself decreasing perception of ingroup threat. Study 2 reproduced the same experimental design, but used descriptions of individual immigrants' acculturation strategies, and the immigrant group's status – valued vs. devalued origin – was also manipulated. In addition, Study 2 focused on dimensions of the " Big Two " of social perception. Results replicated the mediational effect of perceived identification on attribution of both warmth and competence traits. The status manipulation had no significant effect and did not interact with cultural adoption. These two studies provide robust evidence that perception of host nation identification explains the effects of perceived cultural adoption on attitudes towards immigrants.

The influence of group identification on collective guilt and attitudes towards reparation was examined in the context of the Belgian colonization of Congo. People should experience collective emotions to the extent that being a member of the relevant group is part of their self-concept. Yet, the acknowledgement of ingroup responsibility for past misdeeds is particularly threatening for high identifiers and may lead to defensive reactions aimed at avoiding guilt. We therefore predicted, and found, a curvilinear effect of identification on collective guilt. Attitudes towards reparation of past wrongdoings were also assessed and yielded a linear trend: identification predicted less favourable attitudes towards reparation but this effect was marginally stronger as identification increased.

A survey revealed that researchers still seem to encounter difficulties to cope with outliers. Detecting outliers by determining an interval spanning over the mean plus/minus three standard deviations remains a common practice. However, since both the mean and the standard deviation are particularly sensitive to outliers, this method is problematic. We highlight the disadvantages of this method and present the median absolute deviation, an alternative and more robust measure of dispersion that is easy to implement. We also explain the procedures for calculating this indicator in SPSS and R software.

Abstract The universality versus culture specificity of quantitative evaluations (negative-positive) of 40 events in world history was addressed using World History Survey data collected from 5,800 university students in 30 countries/societies. Multidimensional ...

Emergent properties of global political culture were examined using data from the World
History Survey (WHS) involving 6,902 university students in 37 countries evaluating 40 figures
from world history. Multidimensional scaling and factor analysis techniques found only
limited forms of universality in evaluations across Western, Catholic/Orthodox, Muslim, and
Asian country clusters. The highest consensus across cultures involved scientific innovators,
with Einstein having the most positive evaluation overall. Peaceful humanitarians like
Mother Theresa and Gandhi followed. There was much less cross-cultural consistency in
the evaluation of negative figures, led by Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein.
After more traditional empirical methods (e.g., factor analysis) failed to identify meaningful
cross-cultural patterns, Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used to identify four global representational
profiles: Secular and Religious Idealists were overwhelmingly prevalent in
Christian countries, and Political Realists were common in Muslim and Asian countries. We
discuss possible consequences and interpretations of these different representational
profiles

Collaboration with the Nazi occupier during WWII has always been a topic of dissent between French-speakers (FS) and Dutch-speakers (DS) in Belgium. According to a popular myth coined after the war and often narrated in the media and literature, collaboration was widespread in Flanders, whereas Walloons bravely resisted, although historical reality is much more nuanced. These representations regularly resurface in political debates surrounding the Belgian linguistic conflict. Demands for amnesty addressed by nationalist Flemish parties are a case in point. A questionnaire survey (N = 521; 315 FS and 206 DS) showed that collaboration was represented negatively and was morally condemned in both groups. However, DS expressed more Support for Amnesty (SA) than FS. This effect of Linguistic Group (LG) on SA was mediated by judgment of morality of collaboration, and this mediation was moderated by identification with the LG. Interestingly, SA was predicted by judgments of morality of DS, but not of FS, collaborators, in both groups, as if francophone collaboration was deemed irrelevant. Results suggest that differences between DS and FS in political position
taking regarding the granting of amnesty are partly due to differences in representations of collaboration, and to different perspectives towards the same historical representation. The myth is both shared and disputed.

DI-fusion, le Dépôt institutionnel numérique de l'ULB, est l'outil de référencementde la production scientifique de l'ULB.L'interface de recherche DI-fusion permet de consulter les publications des chercheurs de l'ULB et les thèses qui y ont été défendues.

DI-fusion, le Dépôt institutionnel numérique de l'ULB, est l'outil de référencementde la production scientifique de l'ULB.L'interface de recherche DI-fusion permet de consulter les publications des chercheurs de l'ULB et les thèses qui y ont été défendues.

Résumé: Nous avons investigué les traits utilisés par les immigrés et leurs enfants pour décrire les Marocains du Maroc et réciproquement. Plus précisément, nous avons tenté de répondre aux questions suivantes: 1/Comment les MRE se «disent-ils»? 2/Comment évoquent-ils le pays d'origine et ses habitants? 3/Comment se sentent-ils interpellés par les habitants? 4/Comment les habitants du pays se «disent-ils»? 5/Comment les habitants évoquent-ils les immigrés et leurs enfants? Pour répondre à ces questions, nous avons ...

DI-fusion, le Dépôt institutionnel numérique de l'ULB, est l'outil de référencementde la production scientifique de l'ULB.L'interface de recherche DI-fusion permet de consulter les publications des chercheurs de l'ULB et les thèses qui y ont été défendues.

DI-fusion, le Dépôt institutionnel numérique de l'ULB, est l'outil de référencementde la production scientifique de l'ULB.L'interface de recherche DI-fusion permet de consulter les publications des chercheurs de l'ULB et les thèses qui y ont été défendues.

DI-fusion, le Dépôt institutionnel numérique de l'ULB, est l'outil de référencementde la production scientifique de l'ULB.L'interface de recherche DI-fusion permet de consulter les publications des chercheurs de l'ULB et les thèses qui y ont été défendues.

< p> Être sans papiers aujourd'hui en Europe implique non seulement de vivre dans une grande précarité matérielle, mais également d'être privé de toute reconnaissance sociale. Cette reconnaissance est pourtant indispensable afin de pouvoir développer et maintenir une identité positive, et donc une estime de soi satisfaisante. Dans cet article, nous examinons en quoi l'implication active de certains sans-papiers dans des actions collectives–en l'occurrence, des occupations d'églises à Bruxelles–peut contribuer à leur permettre de ...

Groups that perceive themselves as victims can engage in “competitive victimhood”. We propose that, in some societal circumstances, this competition bears on the recognition of past sufferings – rather than on their relative severity –, fostering negative intergroup attitudes. Three studies are presented. Study 1, a survey among Sub-Saharan African immigrants in Belgium (N=127), showed that a sense of collective victimhood was associated with more secondary anti-Semitism. This effect was mediated by a sense of lack of victimhood recognition, then by the belief that this lack of recognition was due to that of Jews’ victimhood, but not by competition over the severity of the sufferings. Study 2 replicated this mediation model among Muslim immigrants (N=125). Study 3 experimentally demonstrated the negative effect of the unequal recognition of groups’ victimhood on intergroup attitudes in a fictional situation involving psychology students (N=183). Overall, these studies provide evidence that struggle for victimhood recognition can foster intergroup conflict.

Many European countries have introduced integration programs that oblige immigrants to adopt the host culture. Indeed, research has shown that members of national majority groups consider host culture adoption by immigrants as desirable. However, so far, the effect of making host culture adoption mandatory on attitudes towards immigrants has not been investigated. We argue that mandatory adoption yields less positively evaluations than spontaneous adoption. Moreover, we contend that this effect is explained by a lower perception of identification with the host nation by immigrants. Participants received information about an immigrant who either adopted the host culture voluntarily or by obligation. As expected, he was perceived more positively in the voluntary condition, and this effect was fully mediated by perception of national identification. These results highlight the importance of inferred motivations underlying cultural adoption in social judgments about immigrants. Implications for mandatory integration programs are discussed.

Au-delà des problématiques liées à l'accueil des demandeurs d'asile, l'intégration de ces populations apparait comme le prochain défi posé aux sociétés européennes. Or, aucune recherche empirique ne s'est penchée sur les perspectives d'intégration envisagées par ces demandeurs d'asile. Au regard de ce manque et de l'urgence sociale, nous avons mené une enquête par questionnaire entre octobre et décembre 2015 auprès de 103 demandeurs d'asile syriens et irakiens afin de mettre en évidence leurs préférences acculturatives ainsi que les facteurs influençant ces attitudes. Suivant les cadres théoriques de Berry (1980) et de Bourhis, Moïse, Perreault et Senécal (1997), nous nous sommes intéressés à leurs attitudes concernant le maintien de leur culture d'origine, la participation à la société d'accueil et l'adoption de la culture d'accueil. Dans l'analyse des facteurs pouvant influencer ces préférences, nous nous attendions à ce que leur perception des attentes du pays d'accueil influence leur choix acculturatif dans la mesure où le futur de ces demandeurs d'asile est suspendu à l'obtention du statut de réfugié délivré par la société d'accueil. De plus, étant donné la nature forcée de leur migration, nous nous sommes intéressés à l'influence de leur volonté de s'implanter durablement au sein du pays d'accueil comme prédicteur des préférences acculturatives. Les résultats ont tout d'abord montré une intention de maintenir leur culture d'origine, d'adopter la culture et de participer à la société d'accueil. Ensuite, à travers des analyses de régressions multiples, nous avons pu corroborer nos hypothèses suggérant un rôle singulier des intentions migratoires et des perceptions des attentes du pays d'accueil. Plus ceux-ci percevaient des attentes de maintien ou d'adoption culturelle, plus ils étaient enclins à vouloir respectivement maintenir ou adopter. Les résultats soulignent également une relation positive entre le désir de s'installer durablement et la volonté tant de participer à la société que d'adopter la culture d'accueil. Du point de vue méthodologique, cette étude a fait l'objet de nombreuses précautions afin de minimiser l'effet de la désirabilité sociale (p. ex. les questionnaires ont été distribués par des personnes d'origine syrienne ou irakienne). Finalement, les implications de l'étude sur les politiques d'intégration et notamment sur l'implantation de parcours d'intégration contraignant l'acculturation des demandeurs d'asile sont discutées. Pour voir les slides de la présentation :