Discrimination and deservingness: public attitudes towards ethnic, linguistic, and religious exclusion in Belgium

Public acceptance of discrimination is typically treated as a reflection of prejudice. We argue it is better understood as a moral judgment about deservingness – a grammar through which exclusion is recast as fairness. Using the CARIN criteria, we examine how perceptions of deservingness shape the acceptability of discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, and language. Analyses draw on an online survey of adults in Belgium (N = 3,000), in which respondents rated the acceptability of discrimination across three grounds. Respondents emphasizing migrants' willingness to integrate (Attitude), cultural similarity (Identity), and responsibility for their migration (Control) were more likely to find discrimination acceptable, while those prioritizing migrants' societal contributions (Reciprocity) were more resistant to discrimination across all domains. Intergroup contact mattered selectively: frequency had no effect, while contact quality consistently predicted lower acceptance and moderated several deservingness effects. These patterns reveal conditional rather than categorical commitments to equality, with support granted on perceived merit, gratitude, or compatibility. Discrimination thus reflects not only failed tolerance but moral reasoning that treats fairness as something migrants must earn. The findings bridge deservingness research with work on culturalist and color-blind racism, suggesting that reducing discrimination requires contesting the moral logics that legitimize it.