Racial and Economic Factors in Attitudes to Immigration

Abstract

In this paper we distinguish between three channels that determine attitudes to further immigration: labour market concerns, welfare concerns, and racial or cultural concerns. Our analysis is based on the British Social Attitudes Survey. A unique feature of the survey is that it includes questions on attitudes towards immigration from different origin countries, with populations differing in ethnic similarity to the resident population. It also contains sets of questions relating directly to the labour market, benefit expenditure and welfare concerns, and racial and cultural prejudice. Based on this unique data source, we specify and estimate a multiple factor model that allows comparison of the relative magnitude of association of attitudes to further immigration with the three channels, as well as comparison in responses across potential immigrant groups of different origin. Our results suggest that, overall, welfare concerns play a more important role in determination of attitudes to further immigration than labour market concerns, with their relative magnitude differing across potential emigration regions and characteristics of the respondent. In addition, we find strong evidence that racial or cultural prejudice is an important component to attitudes towards immigration; however, this is restricted to immigration from countries with ethnically different populations.

Is Immigration Good or Bad for the Economy? Analysis of Attitudinal Responses

“…Evidence provided by Dustmann and Preston (2004) supports this conjecture which we are exploring in greater depth using ESS data.…”

Changing attitudes toward immigration in Europe, 2002–2007: A dynamic group conflict theory approach

“…Most of these studies focus on the social location and other correlates-both at the individual and at the contextual level-of such attitudes. Ample evidence has been presented that outgroup attitudes are closely connected to variables such as educational level Hagendoorn and Nekuee, 1999;Hainmueller and Hiscox, 2007), economic interests (Citrin et al, 1997;Dustmann and Preston, 2004;Fetzer, 2000), religiosity (Billiet, 1995;McFarland, 1989), human values (Davidov et al, 2008;Sagiv and Schwartz, 1995), perceived threat (Scheepers 2 et al, 2002;Semyonov et al, 2004), right-wing voting behavior , and the economic context and the size of the immigrant population (Quillian, 1995;Schneider, 2008;Semyonov et al, 2008).…”

Illegal Immigration: Policy Perspectives and Challenges

“…Similar evidence has also been obtained by Facchini and Mayda (2009) Besides economic drivers, Scheve and Slaughter (2001), Mayda (2006) and Facchini and Mayda (2009) consider also the role of non-economic factors such as the perceived crime and cultural impact of immigration, the role played by racism, sciovinism etc., even though these factors are not the focus of their analyses. As also argued by Dustmann and Preston (2007), all these elements do play an important role in shaping attitudes towards immigration. [COUNTRY] should take stronger measures to exclude illegal immigrants", and the five possible answers are "1.…”