The Effect of Anti-immigration Sentiment on Inequality and Populist Attitudes

• In Event: Graduate Student Research Lightning Round: Identity, Public Opinion

Abstract

A bulk of the literature has studied the demand side of populism. One strand of literature focuses on how populist attitudes affect the vote for populist parties (Hawkins, Rovira Kaltwasser, and Andreadis 2018). Another strand of literature studies individual correlates of populist attitudes (Eriksen et al. 2021; Balta, Rovira Kaltwasser, and Yagci 2021). This study sheds light on the latter, especially focusing on socioeconomic status. Drawing from the financial crisis of the 2000s, existing studies of populism argue that economic grievance explains the rise of populism (Stephens 2018; Funke et al 2016). However, only a few studies have made a comprehensive contribution to our understanding between economic factors and populism at the individual level. This paper tackles the lack of conversation between the studies of populist attitudes and socioeconomic status and posits the question if the perception of inequality makes individuals more populist.
In this paper, we also shed light on anti-immigration attitudes as a moderating factor strongly associated with the relationship between populist attitudes and perceived inequality. Using an original survey dataset of North Americans (N = 1,019), we assess the relationship between populist attitudes and the view on inequality and redistribution by accounting for the anti-immigration view as a moderating variable. We first examine if the anti-immigration view moderates the relationship between perceived inequality and populist attitudes. Then, we also test if individuals exhibit strong anti-immigration attitudes, and perceived inequality became a strong predictor for being more populist. Our results indicate that anti-immigration feelings mediate the effect that perceived inequality has on predicting populist attitudes. For those with low-moderate anti-immigrant sentiments, inequality has a positive effect on predicting populist attitudes, implying that the more they favor inequality, the higher their populist attitudes. However, for those concerned about the economic impact of immigration, inequality appears to have a negative effect on predicting populist attitudes, implying that favoring inequality reduces their level of populism.
This article offers the first systematic effort to examine the impacts of the anti-immigration view on the relationship between socioeconomic status and populist attitudes. At a time of growing alarm over inequality and hatred against immigrants around the globe, these questions deserve careful consideration.

Authors

• Yujin Julia Jung, Mount St. Mary's University

• Eduardo Ryo Tamaki, German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA)