Social Acceptance of Immigrants Working as Politicians or Judges Is Low

Often, the dominant society develops negative attitudes towards immigrants and their descendants because their integration is too successful – and not, because they are unwilling to integrate. This is the finding of a new study, conducted by researchers of the University of Mannheim and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

During the last decades, the descendants of immigrants have become increasingly successful in many Western European countries, Germany included. This is shown in many national and international comparative studies. Still, acceptance and recognition on the part of the mainstream has not kept pace. What are the reasons? Mannheim sociologist Professor Dr. Frank Kalter and Professor Dr. Naika Foroutan from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin aimed at answering this question. The result of their experimental study: A possible explanation for negative attitudes towards successful immigrants could be the dominant society’s fear of immigrants occupying influential and value-based occupations. This applies, for example, for immigrants working in local politics or law.

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