Educated Preferences or Selection Effects? A Longitudinal Analysis of the Impact of Educational Attainment on Attitudes Towards Immigrants

Abstract

While previous studies unequivocally show that education and attitudes towards immigrants correlate, the underlying mechanisms remain debated. The liberalization effect claims that education fosters egalitarian values and analytic skills, which translate into positive attitudes. Additionally, the higher educated are less likely to face economic competition from immigrants. However, research on socialization shows that political attitudes develop early in life. Thus, there may be self-selection into education. While there is reason to expect both education and selection effects, previous work has relied exclusively on cross-sectional analyses, thus confounding the two mechanisms. Drawing on the Swiss Household Panel, we find that virtually all variation in education disappears when only withinindividual variance is modelled. While we find strong differences in attitudes towards immigrants between individuals, we observe little change in attitudes as individuals pass through education. Furthermore, our findings show that when entering the labour market, higher educated individuals also become more likely to oppose immigrants. This suggests that differences between educational groups are mostly due to selection effects, and not to the alleged liberalizing effect of education. We conclude that future research on attitudes towards immigrants would greatly benefit from addressing selection into education.

When sexual threat cues shape attitudes toward immigrants: the role of insecurity and benevolent sexism

“…Moreover, age, gender, and having an immigrant background did not have a significant impact. Consistent with previous research (e.g., Lancee and Sarrasin, 2015), those with a high school diploma or more expressed less support for expelling immigrants than those without. When it comes to the factors of interest here, feelings of insecurity were, as expected, positively related to an increased support for expelling immigrants.…”

Utviklingen i synet på innvandrere og innvandringi Norge

“…Vi finner ulike varianter av disse resonnementene i mye av forskningen på dette feltet, med betegnelser som liberaliseringshypotesen versus konkurransehypotesen (Lancee & Sarrasin 2015). Liberaliseringshypotesen viser til at utdanning påvirker verdier, evne til refleksjon, åpenhet for mangfold og andre egenskaper av betydning for hvordan en ser på inn-15.…”

What Explains Increasing Euroscepticism in Switzerland? A Longitudinal Analysis

“…Overall, this is in line with the argument that apparent divide between the losers and winners of globalization may be more cultural than utilitarian. For instance, when it comes to attitudes toward immigration in Switzerland, it has been found that most of the differences between lowly and highly educated are in place before young people start education (Lancee and Sarrasin 2015). Thus, the impact of education-often attributed to the acquisition of skills-is likely to be explained by the social origins of individuals.…”