This study asks whether framing asylum seekers in Israel as "infiltrators" posing threats to the country amplifies exclusion toward them. The term "infiltrators" associates asylum seekers with the anti-infiltration law passed in the 1950s to fight terrorists and dissociates asylum seekers from their unique position as holders of special rights. The term "infiltrators" may thus influence the attitudes of the Israeli public regarding the treatment of asylum seekers. Findings demonstrate that respondents presented with the "infiltrators" frame were more likely to show exclusionary attitudes. Findings additionally show that the framing effect mediates the relation between perceived socioeconomic threat and exclusion.
Immigration is a persistent and complex phenomenon intertwined with geographical, political, societal, and economic challenges. The number of international migrants has been continually increasing over the past five decades. The contributors to this volume dedicated to Professor Rebeca Raijman address various types of migrants like economic or labour migrants, forced migration and ethnic migrants. Implementing both qualitative and quantitative data and analyses, they provide insight on why individuals decide to migrate, how their decisions affect their own lives and the lives of their offspring, and how immigrants affect the receiving societies they arrive in.
This study provides new insight on subjective well-being (hereafter SWB) and its association with individuals' objective economic standing. In particular, we are interested in how one's relative position in the distribution of wealth influences his or her general satisfaction with life (hereafter GLS), representing the cognitive and most stable dimension of SWB. Most studies on the relationship between economic standing and SWB have used income as an indicator of economic standing. Yet, income seems to account for only a small part of the variation in SWB (e.g. Diener, Sandvik, Seidlitz & Diener 1993). In addition, income is restricted to a certain time interval (income per week, per month, or per year) and, to periods of labor market activity. Recent studies thus argue that other measures of economic standing such as socioeconomic status, deprivation, and wealth, might be more useful for understanding its relationship with SWB (e.g. Christoph 2010). Wealth is a stock Graph accumulated throughout a person's life course. Additionally, in contrast to earned income, which requires time, effort, and working ability, wealth offers access to capital and goods independent of individual investment and ability, for example, through intergenerational transfers (Elmelech 2008). Wealth may also be a better indicator of an individual's long-term consumption potential (Spilerman 2000). Considering the unique properties of wealth, we see it fit to measure the consequences of economic standing to SWB, over and above the consequences income may have on it. A second contribution of this study is the focus it places on macro-level factors, and specifically, state-level welfare systems. The relevance of the welfare-state system to the relation between wealth and SWB is best explained through the concept of decommodification, referring to the extent to which citizens in a country are economically independent from the market through the provision of social benefits. These benefits can be understood as a cushion against the consequences of shortage of financial resources (Pacek & Radcliff 2008). Because the extent to which these benefits are provided by the welfare-state strongly differs between the three regimes, we predict that the association between wealth and SWB will also differ.
Our article investigates political engagement among youth with and without an immigration background. Tapping to current debates on intergenerational assimilation processes in Europe, we look at differences in levels of political interest between immigrants, children of immigrants and natives. In particular, we argue that such differences are a function of respondents' identification with the receiving society. We predict that among respondents with an immigrant background higher levels of national identification will be positively correlated with political interest. Among natives, political interest will not depend on levels of national identification. These expectations reflect the ideas of the social identity perspective according to which group identification increases adherence to group norms and adherence to norms is stronger among individuals who suffer from identity uncertainty. We test our model in four European countries: England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, using data from the CILS4EU project. Our findings indicate that interest in the politics of the survey country differs between respondents with and without an immigrant background. Respondents with an immigrant background who also have a strong national identification are more likely to report a political interest than natives. Respondents with an immigrant background who have a low national identification, are less likely to report a political interest than natives. The findings also reveal that political discussions at home and associationism positively predict political interest whereas girls show significantly lower odds to be politically interested.
Our article investigates political engagement among youth with and without an immigration background. Tapping to current debates on intergenerational assimilation processes in Europe, we look at differences in levels of political interest between immigrants, children of immigrants and natives. In particular, we argue that such differences are a function of respondents' identification with the receiving society. We predict that among respondents with an immigrant background higher levels of national identification will be positively correlated with political interest. Among natives, political interest will not depend on levels of national identification. These expectations reflect the ideas of the social identity perspective according to which group identification increases adherence to group norms and adherence to norms is stronger among individuals who suffer from identity uncertainty. We test our model in four European countries: England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, using data from the CILS4EU project. Our findings indicate that interest in the politics of the survey country differs between respondents with and without an immigrant background. Respondents with an immigrant background who also have a strong national identification are more likely to report a political interest than natives. Respondents with an immigrant background who have a low national identification, are less likely to report a political interest than natives. The findings also reveal that political discussions at home and associationism positively predict political interest whereas girls show significantly lower odds to be politically interested.
