Dual National Identification and Attitudes towards Immigrants and Immigration Policies in the Pluri-National States of Belgium and Spain.

Immigration to European countries coexists with distinct processes of identification at the subnational and nation-state levels. Expanding on previous studies, this paper examines the extent to which these identities are related to opposition toward immigrants and immigration policies in the multinational states of Belgium and Spain. Results indicate that Belgian and Spanish citizens with a dual identification tend to have more positive attitudes toward foreigners and are less inclined to support restrictive immigration quotas than those with a strong subnational self-association. Our analysis further shows an inverse relation between exclusivist self-identification and attitudes towards immigrants and immigration policies in Belgium and Spain. In Belgium, those who view themselves as 'Belgian only' tend have more positive opinions toward foreigners and existing immigration policies than respondents with a 'Flemish only' identity. In Spain, citizens with a strong 'Catalonian only' identification are less supportive of anti-immigrant views than those with a strong 'Spanish only' identity. The implications of these findings for the existing theory and research are discussed in the concluding section. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]