oa Baanonzekerheid en sympathie voor extreemrechtse partijen

Job insecurity and sympathy for extreme right-wing parties

Research has rarely focused on the societal consequences of job insecurity such as right-wing extremism. The scarce empirical evidence points to an indirect relationship, for instance running via perceived status anxiety, anomy, relative deprivation or everyday racism. Overall, feelings of economic threat by immigrants are assumed to play an important intermediate role. A sound theoretical explanation is however lacking. In this research we propose an explanatory model that builds on insights of the latent deprivation model of Jahoda (1982) and the social identity approach of Tajfel and Turner (1979). In addition, we control for other (broader) aspects of perceived threats by immigrants, i.e. perceived nuisances and fear of crime. Hypotheses are tested using linear hierarchical regression analysis on the survey data of 602 Flemish workers. The results indicate that job insecurity is indirectly related with sympathy for right-wing extremist political parties. It is associated with more status anxiety, which in turn strengthens everyday racism and political distrust. Both variables relate strongly with sympathy for extreme right-wing parties. The results suggest that job insecurity is an indirect and not a direct predictor of right-wing extremism, even after controlling for other types of perceived threats associated with immigrants.