National attachments and the immigrant participation gap

ABSTRACT

The paper adds insights to the ongoing discussion about how the political participation gap between naturalised immigrants and native citizens can be closed. In contrast to prior research, however, it takes a new turn by looking at the moderating role of national attachments, namely national identity and patriotism, in the relationship between immigration background and political involvement. The research question is explored based on the paradigmatic case of Switzerland with its high levels of foreign born citizens and the historically strong identification as a political nation. Based on the results we can say that national attachments are indeed able to bridge the participation gap. The effect of patriotism – the evaluative dimension of national attachment – thereby plays a more important role for immigrants than simple national identification.

KEYWORDS:

• National attachments
• naturalisation
• political involvement
• Switzerland
• inequality
• patriotism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Besides national identity and patriotism the literature further distinguishes nationalism. While nationalism is an additional and distinct form of national attachment, nationalism and uncritical patriotism are closely related with each other as shown by Schatz, Staub, and Lavine (1999, 162). The main difference, however, is that nationalism is based on the general assumption of an outgroup derogation; that is, for example, a comparison with another national group. In the words of Mummendey, Klink, and Brown (2001, 160) ‘nationalism represents the detrimental facet of positive in-group variation’.

2 Certainly, identification with one’s nation is just one of many potential group identifications. Individuals may identify with groups based on their ethnicity, interests, gender, or social status. Individuals can have multiple group identities and memberships, which may exhibit different effects on political and social behaviour. For example, we know from the social capital literature that membership in ethnically diverse associations may foster political involvement, whereas membership in homogenous groups does not exhibit the same effect, in particular, for immigrant groups (Strömblad and Adman 2010). This may be due to different group norms. One might ask however if membership in specific groups, such as sports associations or unions, fosters national identification, depending on the composition of members. In general, national identification is fostered by many different factors, such as personality, upbringing, educational level or cultural surrounding (Kunovich 2009). It is thus thinkable that associational engagement is one of them. To test this potential relationship, I estimated models with both forms of national attachment as dependent measures (see Table A4 in the appendix). They reveal that, for example, active associational engagement has a negative relationship with the formation of patriotism. Yet, to fully explore the relationships between different forms of group membership/identification, the formation of national attachments and political behaviour lies beyond the scope of this paper.

3 Unfortunately, the data set does not provide any information if naturalisation was achieved by marriage to a Swiss citizen.

4 Other studies often implement an index of political trust consisting of trust in different political institutions. Unfortunately, the MosaiCH asked for institutional trust rather than political trust. Trust in government thereby was the only political institution asked for. Yet, government in Switzerland is always formed by the four biggest parties and thus may also resemble trust in political parties – at least to some extent.

5 Switzerland’s immigration policy follows a ius sanguinis principle; meaning that citizenship is given through ‘blood lines’ or ancestry. This means that only if at least one parent has the Swiss citizenship the child is born as a Swiss citizen.

6 Blank and Schmidt (2003) further argue that patriotism is a consequence of national identity or that simple national identification is a precondition of patriotism. I tested this assumption (results available on request) by means of a mediation analysis (KHB mediation analysis). The results, however, revealed that while national identity has an impact on patriotism, there is no relevant mediation on political involvement through patriotism.

7 However, surveys tend to overestimate real turnout rates. The average turnout in Swiss national elections is slightly below 50%; in the 2011 national election turnout was 48.4%. Other surveys including Switzerland show similar levels of self-reported turnout (see e.g. European Social Survey). Turnout is even lower for individuals with a migration background. Thus, over reporting occurs for both native and non-native Swiss voters.

8 An exception from this rule is the extraordinary achievement of citizenship through marriage to a Swiss citizen. But, even in this case you can only apply for citizenship if you have lived in Switzerland for at least five years.

9 I further estimated the main models excluding all control variables (see Table A5 in the appendix). Here, the influence of national attachments on political involvement seems to be slightly stronger.