Skills or Origins? Results from a Survey-Based Experiment on Europeans’ Support for Immigration

• In Event: 3251 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 3. Attitudes Towards Immigrants

Abstract

The skill level and degree of cultural difference of immigrants likely play an important role in determining support for increasing levels of immigration. However, research focusing on the impact of these characteristics on attitudes toward immigration is scarce. This paper contributes to the existing literature by examining how attitudes toward immigration of respondents from 19 European countries are influenced by the skill level of immigrants (professional versus unskilled), their origins (Europe versus non-Europe), and the interaction between skills and origins. Our analysis exploits the split ballot experimental design built into Round 7 of the European Social Survey, which enables us to isolate the impacts of skills and origins in determining support for increased immigration. We find that Europeans care more about skill than origins in determining support; however, there is wide variation across the 19 countries examined both in the importance of skills versus origins, and in the extent to which skill preferences depend upon origins and origin preferences depend upon skill level.

Authors

• Sevsem Cicek-Okay, University of Cincinnati

• Jeffrey M. Timberlake, University of Cincinnati