Receptivity to different types of migrants in Taiwan: Civic behavior and support for same-sex marriage as novel correlates

• Published in: Current sociology Vol. 71; no. 5; pp. 780 - 807
• Main Author: Chang, Hsin-Chieh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-09-2023; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Aging; Attitudes; Civic culture; Destinations; Ethnicity; Immigrants; Immigration; Internal migration; Labor migration; Migrant workers; Migrants; Noncitizens; Organization theory; Receptivity; Regional variations; Same sex marriage; Social organization; Social structure; Sociological research; Visibility; Asia; Taiwan; engagement civique; emerging migrant-receiving society; foreigner exclusionism; nouvelle société d’accueil des migrants; exclusión de extranjeros; value shift; civic engagement; changement de valeurs; nuevas sociedades receptoras de inmigrantes; Attitudes à l’égard des immigrants et de l’immigration; Attitudes toward immigrants and immigration; compromiso cívico; exclusion des étrangers; Actitudes hacia los inmigrantes y la inmigración; cambio de valores
• ISSN: 0011-3921; 1461-7064
• DOI: 10.1177/00113921211039264

In an era of rising global intra-regional migration, in-depth explorations of attitudes toward immigrants and immigration (ATII) in emerging migrant-receiving societies in Asia are scarce. Using Taiwan as a case of an emerging non-Western, democratic migrant-receiving context with a racially homogeneous population, aging social structure, and vibrant civic culture, this is the first study to examine receptivity to three major migrant types. The study contributes to the ATII literature and sociological research through discovering something old (perceived group threat of foreign professionals and labor migrants at the individual level), something new (link between positive attitudes toward same-sex marriage and higher receptivity to blue-collar migrants), something borrowed (civic behavior), and something context-specific (effect of the high visibility of marriage immigrants in certain places on receptivity). This study highlights the importance of uncovering patterns and mechanisms of nativity-, ethnicity-, and class-based foreigner exclusionism in emerging non-Western migrant destinations. The findings on receptivity toward intra-Asia migrants in a 21st-century Asian society illuminate possibilities for reinventing theories on the social organization of difference and the socio-cognitive construction of ethnicity, with broader relevance to inter-minority relations among Asians in traditional Western immigrant societies.