Immigration into Europe: Economic Discrimination, Violence, and Public Policy

Abstract

Immigration has irreversibly changed Western European demographics over the past generation. This article reviews recent research drawing implications of this migration for labor-market discrimination and for immigrant-state and immigrant-native violence. It further reports on research measuring the effects of political institutions and policy regimes on reducing the barriers to immigrants' economic integration. In the course of reviewing the literature, we discuss some of the methodological challenges that scholars have not fully confronted in trying to identify the causes and consequences of discrimination and violence. In doing so, we highlight that future work needs to pay greater attention to sequencing, selection, and demographic effects. Further, we suggest ways to resolve contradictory findings in regard to preferred policies aimed at advancing immigrants' economic performance.

Is There a Backlash Against Immigration From Richer Countries? International Hierarchy and the Limits of Group Threat

“…As aptly noted by Malhotra, Margalit, and Mo (), “individuals who are antithetical to immigrants… are likely to describe immigration as harmful on any dimension on which they are asked to assess its merits” (p. 394). As Dancygier and Laitin () further contend, “explaining preferences for immigrant restrictions by pointing to survey responses about whether immigrants pose a threat…appears nearly tautological” (p. 46). These criticisms notwithstanding, however, there is still a substantial literature suggesting that—with regard to immigration—people's subjective perceptions of their group threat could be grounded in the contextually heterogeneous objective conditions of scarce resources and cultural distance (see Ceobanu & Escandell, ; Enos & Gidron, ; Hopkins, ).…”

Increasing Validity by Recombining Existing Indices: MIPEX as a Measure of Citizenship Models*

“…Citizenship models are of interest as they are thought to shape many aspects of political behavior. For instance, citizenship models have been linked to minority politics, political debates about minorities and immigrants, political participation and representation, or naturalization (e.g., Koopmans et al., ; Bird, ; Böcker and Thränhardt, ; Harrison and Munn, ; Ersanilli and Koopmans, ; Doomernik, Kraler, and Reichel, ; Wright and Bloemraad, ; Dronkers and Vink, ; Bloemraad and Schönwälder, ; Celis, Eelbode, and Wauters, ; Huddleston and Vink, ; Helbling, ; Dancygier and Laitin, ; Hainmueller and Hangartner, ). To capture these underlying citizenship models, a wide variety of approaches have been employed.…”

A Foreigner who Does Not Steal My Job: The Role of Unemployment Risk and Values in Attitudes toward Equal Opportunities

“…Sherif and Sherif () and particularly Blumer's () work on racial prejudice highlighted the importance of group positions and perceptions of threat (for recent theoretical developments, refer to Bobo and Hutchings ). This perspective of competitive threat remains the staple of research on attitudes toward immigrants (for reviews, refer to Ceobanu and Escandell ; Hainmueller and Hopkins ; Dancygier and Laitin ). Much of the literature has focused on economic threats such as the competition over jobs and salaries, but other forms of threat are recognized.…”