Double standards? Attitudes towards immigrant and emigrant dual citizenship in the Netherlands

Abstract

Despite increasingly liberal practices around the world, dual citizenship acceptance is still contested. Surprisingly, few studies exist on what drives public attitudes towards political membership in two or more states. Based on data from the 2012 Dutch Parliamentary Election Study (N = 1,677) we investigate the discrepancy in negative attitudes in the Netherlands towards dual citizenship of immigrants who acquire Dutch citizenship, on the one hand, and more positive attitudes towards Dutch citizens acquiring a foreign citizenship, on the other. We find that negative views of immigrant dual citizenship are associated with strong in-group identification and out-group derogation, whereas experiencing a sense of symbolic group threat is associated with negative views of both immigrant and emigrant dual citizenship.