Identifying City Differences in Perceived Group Discrimination among Second-generation Turks and Moroccans in Belgium

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of city context on the levels and predictors of perceived group discrimination (GD) among Turkish and Moroccan second-generation immigrants in Belgium. Based on the Integration of the European Second-generation (TIES) data, we address two main questions: (1) Are there significant differences in the levels of perceived GD between the two cities in Belgium (Antwerp and Brussels) within each immigrant group? (2) Who perceives more GD within each city? To answer these questions, possible composition effects should be controlled. Accordingly, we use propensity-score matching to make second-generation immigrant samples from the two cities reasonably comparable with respect to socio-demographic characteristics. Concerning the first research question, we find that after propensity-score matching, the Turkish second-generation perceive more GD in Antwerp than in Brussels. For the Moroccan group, however, the city differences in perceived GD are no longer significant after matching. With regards to the second research question, we find that those who are more socio-economically integrated and those who perceive more threat in their city are more likely to perceive GD.

Keywords:

• Perceived Discrimination
• Integration Context
• Propensity-score Matching

Notes

[1] In addition, we suggest that group (vs. personal) discrimination is more directly tied to city context differences (group size, hierarchy, social learning, economic threat, etc.,), therefore, we chose to focus on GD in this paper instead of personal experiences of discrimination, a measure of which is also available in the TIES data-set. That said, we reran the analysis for experienced personal discrimination using the TIES data. However, at the latent variable level, we did not find any significant city differences on the levels of experienced personal discrimination after matching, neither for Turks nor for Moroccans.

[2] Second-generation population was expectedly higher in 2007 during the TIES fieldwork, but statistics for the second-generation immigrants were rarely reported for Brussels in the following years.

[3] We want to remark that the predictors are not ‘purely’ exogenous causes of GD but can also be endogenous, since they can (partially) be the result of past experiences of GD.

[4] Note that current religion also differed significantly between the cities for Morrocans. However, given the high correlation between the two variables, it was sufficient to include Quran lessons to balance the distribution of current religion between the city samples. Consequently, we did not include current religion in the matching model.

[5] It is also worth noting that we added direct effects between gender and GD in civic sphere due the differential associations between gender and GD. Specifically, in encounters with the police and while going out, women perceived less GD. Conversely, women perceived more GD in the street and in the neighbourhood. This is in line with the understanding that Muslim women have less contact with the police and less likely to go out to clubs and to cafes compared to men.

[6] Although these variables were available in the TIES data (father's motive for migration and region), once we included them in the analysis, the number of the unmatched cases increased to a great extent especially for Moroccans. In order not to lose a substantial number of cases from the analysis, we preferred to exclude these variables from the matching analysis.