ABSTRACT

The continued immigration to Western Europe, initially from Southern Europe in the 1960s, subsequently from Turkey and North Africa in the 1970s and finally from the Middle East and Eastern Europe in the 1980s and 1990s, has transformed Western European states into multi-ethnic societies (Hagendoorn & Pepels, 2000). One of the most dramatic social problems resulting from this immigration has been the consistent negative reaction shown by much of the host populations of most Western European countries towards the growing number and size of ethnic minorities.