The Perceived Threats from Migrants and their Effects on Government Service Equality

Abstract

Governments market policies like ?products,? hoping that they will receive public support. With the increasing opposition to migrants in many countries, governments face more pressure to enact laws that favor citizens over migrants, assuming that citizens desire preferential treatment. We challenge that assumption by investigating antecedents of Government Service Equality (GSE), which captures the extent to which citizens believe that migrants are entitled to the same level of quality when using government services. Utilizing the justification-suppression model of prejudice and acculturation theory as theoretical underpinning, the article highlights the role of perceived threat in legitimizing discrimination against migrants. The conceptual model distinguishes between two types of threats: symbolic and realistic. Furthermore, the article investigates the role of cosmopolitanism and tradition in driving both types of threats. Results obtained through SEM using 428 surveys collected from host country citizens indicate that both realistic threat (e.g., economy) and symbolic threat (e.g., culture) influence equality perceptions negatively. However, our results reveal that citizens could be divided into two segments: cosmopolitans and traditionalists. Traditionalists, unlike cosmopolitans, do perceive migrants as threatening. In addition, cosmopolitanism has a direct positive influence on GSE. We conclude with a discussion and agenda for future research.