Ethnic Hierarchies in Majority Perceptions: Understanding the Ranking of Immigrant Groups in Western Societies

Societies tend to rank immigrant groups in a perceived ethnic hierarchy, where some groups are considered more desirable to the majority group, while others are seen as more distant or less desirable. Although the field assumes that cultural differences play a key role in this relative ranking of immigrants groups, this assumption remains largely untested. The present research sets out to help close this gap. Using large-scale survey data sets combined with contextual indicators from multiple Western societies, the results suggest that larger ‘objective’ cultural differences of immigrants from specific origin countries underpin stronger perceived differences by the majority population, which in turn correlate with greater social distance. Implications regarding the nature and analysis of prejudice towards immigrant groups are discussed.