Thursday Seminars by Bruno Castanho Silva and Giulia Fuochi

Second Class: Public Opinion Perceptions of Naturalized Citizens’ Rights and Duties 

Bio

Bruno Castanho Silva is an Assistant Professor for Methods in Empirical Social Research at the Institute of Sociology and Otto-Suhr Institute of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Central European University (Budapest, Hungary) and is also an Executive Board member of the Methods Excellence Initiative (MethodsNET). Bruno’s research uses a variety of quantitative and computational methods to study issues connected to populism and radicalism, social media and politics, and the representation of underrepresented groups. His work has been published in journals such as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and Political Analysis, among others. 

Abstract

Citizenship has once again become a politicized issue across developed countries, at the same time as demographic changes lead to higher numbers of dual and naturalized citizens. However, empirical political research has dedicated little attention to natural-born citizens views’ on those topics. This paper argues that naturalized citizens, while in theory having (almost) all the legal rights of natural-born ones, are still seen as second-class citizens in European countries when it comes to their rights, but are expected to fulfil their whole share of citizenship obligations. It tests these expectations with a survey experiment fielded in four EU countries (n ca. 2,000 per country), in which respondents indicate how much they approve of certain rights and obligations for natural-born or naturalized citizens, and of long-term non-citizen residents. Findings indicate that the public has less tolerance for naturalized citizens who are critical of the country to vote and participate in politics, but holds them to the same level of duty as the natural-born when it comes to serving the military in case of foreign threats. These findings shed the first empirical light on the  re-emerging politicized issue of citizenship rights in Europe and beyond. 

Deprovincialization and other pathways to intergroup and societal harmony

Bio

Giulia Fuochi is assistant professor and researcher in social psychology at the University of Padova. Her work explores how people relate to others across group boundaries, with a focus on prejudice, intergroup contact, mindfulness, and openness toward diversity. She has published extensively on these topics in international journals. 

Abstract 

Recent decades have seen a rise in identity-based polarization in several democratic societies, exacerbating conflict among social groups. One process that may counteract this trend could be that of deprovincialization, a shift in perspective through which individuals come to view their own group’s norms and values as less absolute or superior, while becoming more open to and accepting of cultural differences. Deprovincialization typically emerges from positive intergroup contact – i.e., interactions between members of different social groups – but also entails a strong component of cognitive change, transforming how people interpret social diversity and group or national identity. This presentation will first shed light on the concept of deprovincialization, also illustrating its links with intergroup variables (intergroup contact, prejudice, and anxiety), socio-political dispositions (right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation) and other individual tendencies (curiosity, values) through network analysis. Second, results from latent profile analysis, a person-centered approach that identifies latent subgroups of individuals based on similar patterns of responses across variables, will show how deprovincialization tends to cluster within profiles characterized by cognitive flexibility, curiosity, pro-diversity and anti-hierarchy beliefs. Third, the potential behavioral outcomes of deprovincialization in an experimental setting will be explored: participants exposed to an audio clip designed to elicit deprovincialization – compared to those assigned to an active control condition – reported lower levels of national ingroup identification (i.e., Italians), and, more importantly, stronger intentions to engage in collective action to improve the conditions of the outgroup (i.e., Arab people living in Italy). Overall, these findings highlight deprovincialization as a core mechanism for social change, fostering openness toward diversity and pluralism, reducing ethnocentrism, and mobilizing advantaged groups to support disadvantaged ones.