Labor migration, market competition and ethnocentrism: guest workers in Israel and Germany ; Ergebnisse eines Forschungsprojektes und Beschreibung des Datensatzes (ZA-Studien-Nr. 3974)

Abstract

'The major objective of the research was to examine attitudes and values toward guest workers in Israel and Germany in a comparative perspective. The main objects of examinations are the social conditions which shape the normative system of beliefs, attitudes, stereotypes, prejudice and behaviour toward foreign workers and ethnic minorities. The research was cast within theoretical frameworks that focus on the emergence of prejudice, discrimination and ethnic antagonism in modern societies. Two alternative, but by no means contradictory, models were used. The first is social psychological and centres on such concepts as social distance, prejudice, authoritarianism, and ethnocentrism. The second approach focuses on group competition over resources and rewards in national markets. Data to test the hypotheses were taken from national representative samples of adult citizens in Israel and Germany, respectively. The data was analysed using a variety of multivariate statistical models. It was our aim to contribute to a better understanding of the Israeli and German societies and to the theoretical knowledge regarding the social conditions that affect the system of values, attitudes, and behaviour toward migrant workers and ethnic minorities in modern societies. The comparison between Germany and Israel was one special point of interest, because Germany has been employing guest workers for more than a quarter of a century whereas Israel only recently began to rely on foreign workers. The influence of guest worker communities on contemporary societies is one significant social and economic problem of modern states. The study tried to increase the understanding of these mechanisms and phenomena.' (author's abstract)|