Immigrant Diversity, Public Attitudes, and Integration

• In Event: The Political, Economic and Social Ramifications of Immigration

Abstract

Some places host immigrant populations that hail from a vast array of countries. In others, a large share of the immigrant population is from one or very few countries. How the diversity of immigrant populations matters for attitudes toward immigrants and integration remains unknown, however. This paper argues that immigrant diversity reduces hostility toward outsiders among host communities, and that through this mechanism, it also improves integration. Observational and experimental evidence from Denmark and Germany support this argument. In terms of behavioral outcomes, I show that localities with higher levels of immigrant diversity see less support for parties with anti-immigrant appeals and lower levels of immigrant unemployment. With an original conjoint experiment conducted in Germany, I show that diversity affects attitudes as well: respondents prefer highly diverse groups for settlement in their communities.

Author

• Dalston G. Ward, ETH Zurich