Dimensionality of attitudes towards immigrants: A new zealand example

This paper is concerned with the dimensionality of attitudes towards immigrants judged on responses to a Bogardus Social Distance Scale obtained from a random sample survey of voters in the Auckland Urban Area. Principal components analysis, together with an oblique rotation technique employed to investigate the inter‐relationship of dimensions, revealed that attitudes towards immigrants from various countries of origin consist of three inter‐related standards referring to 'whites, non‐English speaking’ (continental Europeans), ‘non‐whites’ (Asians and Pacific Islanders) and ‘whites, English‐speaking’ (immigrants of ‘British’ and ‘American’ origin). This result provides support for the findings of other researchers and can be viewed as consistent with the origins and cultural heritage of New Zealand society. 1973 Australian Psychological Society