Social psychological research has distinguished between ethnic and civic conceptions of citizenship and examined the differential associations of these conceptions with perceived out-group competition and threats to explain attitudes towards immigrants. In contrast, the current study examines two dimensions of group indispensability: functional indispensability and identity indispensability. In a survey study conducted among a national sample of native Dutch we found that the endorsement of ethnic citizenship is related to weaker support for immigrants’ social rights because of a lower sense of functional indispensability and of identity indispensability. In contrast, the endorsement of civic citizenship was associated with higher acceptance of immigrant rights because of a stronger sense of functional and identity indispensability of immigrants. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

immigrants Ethnic citizenship Functional indispensability Identity indispensability Civic citizenship

human citizenship immigrant identity