‘Keep Europe for the Europeans’. The Role of Threat Perceptions and Intergroup Contact for Explaining Attitudes towards Immigrants in Hungary
‘Keep Europe for the Europeans’. The Role of Threat Perceptions and Intergroup Contact for Explaining Attitudes towards Immigrants in Hungary

Summary/Abstract: In 2015, the inflow of immigrants to Europe increased dramatically. More than 1 million people fled fromwars and conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly affecting transit countries along the WesternBalkan route. Of all the transit countries, the Hungarian government was particularly vocal in its negativeattitude towards immigrants, launching several anti-immigration campaigns which had a detrimental effecton residents’ hostility towards these immigrants. In this study, we focus on the mechanisms behind thisincreased hostility in a transit-country context by combining insights from integrated-threat theory andcontact theory. We find that perceptions of realistic and symbolic threat increased negative attitudestowards immigrants. Importantly, these threat perceptions were shaped by people’s positions in society andpersonal circumstances, in combination with their contact with immigrants. Specifically, in the harsh andnegative Hungarian context, contact negatively influenced threat perceptions, especially amongst peoplewho were at risk of experiencing negative consequences supposedly caused by the influx of immigrants.This in-depth country case study emphasises the importance of contextualising research findings onattitudes towards immigration in a broader social and political context.

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