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Marginalization across Europe: Intersections of Ethnicity, Class, Gender and State

Smith, Carolyn Elizabeth

Abstract Details

2012, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Sociology.
Integration across the European continent has extended considerably in the past two decades. One of the reported benefits of this integration has been the increasing inclusion of marginalized groups. Legislation protecting minority rights has been generated and IGOs and NGOs have been developed to improve the quality of life for the disadvantaged European citizenry. However, marginalization – understood as individuals’ exclusion from meaningful participation in society - continues to persist and it is seen by politicians and the masses alike as an important social problem. This dissertation explores attitudes towards three marginalized groups – immigrants, the economically disadvantaged and women. It develops a theoretical framework for which intersections of various segments of the social system is an important explanatory variable. Using intersectionality as a driving framework, it answers the questions: What are the similarities and differences in attitudes towards immigrants, the economically disadvantaged and women? What are the important individual and country-level determinants of attitudes towards each of these marginalized populations? To answer these questions, I begin with describing overall levels of exclusive attitudes towards issues pertaining to ethnicity/immigrants, the economically disadvantaged/poor, and women. Using the European Values Study, I find similar levels of exclusive attitudes towards each group while seemingly immigrants generate the most concern for individuals across Europe. Furthermore, I find that the distinction between being native born rather than an immigrant has the largest effect in generating less inclusive attitudes towards all marginalized groups relative to other demographic characteristics. For this reason I focus on the effects of the intersection of immigrant status and gender. Regional comparisons suggest variation in attitudes towards marginalized groups but no one region sticks out as particularly inclusive or exclusive. Next, I complete three separate analyses. First, I examine differences between elite and mass opinions in shaping attitudes about immigrant threat and nationalism. In this chapter I analyze data from the IntUne Survey: Integrated and United? A Quest for Citizenship in an “Ever Closer Europe,” conducted among parliamentarians and the general public. While elite levels of anti-immigrant threat do positively increase mass-nationalism, I find that the general population has a larger impact on elites than the reciprocal relationship. This finding gives strong support to theories arguing that elites are very much aware of the moods among their constituents and reshape and readjust their attitudes and political party platforms to align with the sentiments of the general public. In my next chapter I analyze the intersections of country-levels economic factors and welfare regime variables with multidimensional measures of economic disadvantaged in Central and Eastern Europe. I utilize a new classification of welfare regime types which divides Central and Eastern Europe into three distinct welfare regime categories – Totalitarian Former USSR , Developing Post-communist European and Developed Post-communist European types. I employ hierarchical linear modeling to examine within- and between-country variation in attitudes toward concern with workers in Central and Eastern Europe. I find that the so-call developed Totalitarian Former USSR type countries are more likely concerned with workers’ standard of living relative to the Developing Post-communist European countries. I also find the GINI coefficient – the level of income inequality in a country is most important in predicting whether or not one believes the most economically disadvantaged are worse off than in the past. Finally I analyze the intersections of gender and nation. Specifically, I examine the social, political and economic country-level factors that influence attitudes towards women in the labor force. In this analysis, I combine and impute data using five different data sets: The European Social Survey, IntUne, Eurequal, International Social Survey Programme and the European Values Study. The combination of data sets allows me to generate a significantly larger population and country sample than any one survey could provide. In this analysis, I find that social measures such as the percent of women in parliament and a gender inequality index are not as important in determining attitudes about women as political or economic measures. This dissertation increases our understanding of the individual and country-level determinants of attitudes towards issues involving marginalized groups in Europe – Do people consider immigrants a threat? How close do you feel to workers? Do you disagree that everyone earns their fair share in your country? Are working women capable of developing warm relationships with children? Should men complete a larger share of household chores? By relying on five newly available datasets, this dissertation also provides new examples of ways to incorporate intersectionality into quantitative comparative research.
Edward Crenshaw (Committee Co-Chair)
Kazimierz Slomczynski (Committee Co-Chair)
Craig Jenkins (Committee Member)

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Smith, C. E. (2012). Marginalization across Europe: Intersections of Ethnicity, Class, Gender and State [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1340637898

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Smith, Carolyn. Marginalization across Europe: Intersections of Ethnicity, Class, Gender and State. 2012. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1340637898.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Smith, Carolyn. "Marginalization across Europe: Intersections of Ethnicity, Class, Gender and State." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1340637898

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)