Attitudes towards immigration: does economic self-interest matter?

Arbeitspapier

In this paper, we re-examine the role of economic self-interest in shaping people's attitudes towards immigration, using data from the European Social Survey 2002/2003. Compared to the existing literature, there are two main contributions of the present paper. First, we develop a more powerful test of the hypothesis that a positive relationship between education and attitudes towards immigration reflects economic self-interest in the labour market. Second, we develop an alternative and more direct test of whether economic self-interest matters for people's attitudes towards immigration. We find that while the original relationship between education and attitudes found in the literature is unlikely to reflect economic self-interest, there is considerable evidence of economic self-interest when using the more direct test.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 2283

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft
• Subject: Meinung ; Einwanderung ; Eigeninteresse ; EU-Staaten

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj ; Munch, Jakob Roland ; Schroll, Sanne ; Rose Skaksen, Jan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2006

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/33831
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET