A recent study by researchers from the University of Mannheim and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin suggests something surprising. People in many Western European countries, including Germany, often feel negatively towards immigrants and their kids, even when they’re doing well and fitting in. But it’s not because these immigrants don’t want to fit in – it’s because they’re actually doing a pretty good job of it.

In recent years, the children of immigrants have been doing better and better across Western Europe, according to lots of studies. But despite their progress, mainstream society hasn’t quite caught up in terms of accepting them.

Too successful

Why? The researchers wanted to find out. Their study showed that one reason could be that people in the majority group worry about successful immigrants taking over important roles, like in local politics or the legal field. When immigrants succeed in these areas, it challenges the status quo and makes some people uneasy.

“We have had great success with integrating immigrants. On the labor market or in the education sector, for example, integration is successful and, measured against the often difficult starting conditions, also rather quick,” the researchers explain.

“Nevertheless, this is not how integration is generally perceived. Public opinion fuels the myth that integration has failed, which completely ignores the facts. This discrepancy has caused us to take a closer look at the underlying mechanisms.”

Across professions

The researchers looked at twelve different jobs and seven immigrant groups. They wanted to see if people felt threatened by immigrants in two ways: real threats, like if they thought immigrants would take away jobs or resources, and symbolic threats, like if they felt immigrants were changing their culture or values.

What they found was interesting: Muslims of Turkish descent and Syrian refugees faced more rejection in Germany, regardless of how well they were doing. And in Germany, symbolic threats were a bigger deal than real ones. This means that even if immigrants weren’t directly affecting people’s material well-being, they still felt uneasy if immigrants were in roles that influenced societal norms and rules.

The study also showed that symbolic threats were especially high when Muslim immigrants took on these kinds of jobs.