On the Challenge of Immigrant Integration: A Political culture perspective on Western and Central Eastern Europe

Abstract

This paper takes into consideration the contextualization hypothesis and addresses several relevant influence factors which might have shaped the immigration perception in the Eastern European ex-communist societies after the migration crisis in 2015-2016: (i) the history and geopolitical context of the countries in the eastern half of Europe and the history of East-West emigration before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989; (ii) politicization of migration and political party favourability in the host societies, (iii) national culture characteristics as emphasized by Hofstede’s theory, (iv) beliefs (trust in others), and (v) materialist and postmaterialist values. The roles played by these influence factors in the formation and change of anti-immigration attitudes are discussed in four Country Case Studies comparative analysis between traditional immigration countries from Western Europe and latest immigration target countries from the Central Eastern Europe. The research outcomes provide conceptual support to the hypothesis that the Central Eastern European societies are more sensitive to political culture issues and their reactions to massive immigration might be deeply influenced by their historical and geopolitical contextual conditions, and by their sets of values and beliefs. These and other contextual conditions are discussed with regard to the capacity of CEE countries to develop national models of immigrant integration such that they could face the challenge of massive migration waves in Southern-Central-Eastern Europe.