Till multiculturalism do us part: Multicultural policies and the national identification of immigrants in European countries

Abstract

How do multicultural policies affect immigrants' identification with the country of destination? Theory suggests that these policies may have two opposite effects and either widen or diminish the gap between the national identification of natives and immigrants. In addition to these opposite effects, I expect that the effects of multicultural policies are also diverse depending on immigrants' cultural and social distance from the host society. In this study, immigrants are categorised based on generations and origins. Using newly constructed measurements for multicultural policies, as well as European Social Survey Round 7 with 20 European countries, I conduct a multilevel analysis. The results indicate that multicultural policies diminish the gap between the national identification of natives and immigrants. However, these effects are evident only for non-European immigrants and not for European immigrants. Furthermore, I find no evidence that the effects differ for the first and second generations.