Attitude towards Multiculturalism - Majority in Minority Perspective

Even within a globalizing world, Luxembourg takes an exceptional position with a foreign population of 44 %. Within the capital of Luxembourg, home to a fifth of the country’s population, the native population only makes up 33% of the population. Outwardly the cosmopolitan diversity is praised, but how is this increasingly plural composition of society perceived by the native population which finds itself in the minority within its own country? To investigate this specific “majority as minority” - perspective a quantitative study was conducted within a large Luxembourg employer (N = 507) which has a mainly native born work force. We examined the endorsement of multiculturalism using an adaptation of the Multiculturalism Ideology Scale and the Social Participation Subscale of the Multicultural Attitude Scale. We tested the relationship between demographic variables, different forms of culture contact experiences, individual values as measured by the Schwartz Values Structure, personality traits and the endorsement of multiculturalism. Furthermore we looked at the understanding of nationality as “socially constructed” versus “primordial” as a predictor of multiculturalism. The results show an endorsement of the idea of a plurally composed society, as well as a reluctance towards specific social participation measures of the allochtonous population. As in previous studies, we found that level of education is an important predictor for the endorsement of multiculturalism. The largest predictive weight however had the value structure with persons high in Self-Transcendence and low in Conservation being more open towards multiculturalism. Further significant predictors for high levels of self-reported multiculturalism include (a) the conviction that it is possible to have more than one nationality (socially constructed understanding of nationality), as well as (b) culture contact exposure in terms of a mixed composition of the circle of friends. In addition to this, the personality traits agreeableness and openness also played a role for the endorsement of multiculturalism. Results will be discussed in an acculturation framework where on the one hand cultural diversity is positively evaluated and accepted as a norm but on the other hand specific behavioural aspects of living together have yet to be aligned