Immigration and Preferences for Redistribution in Europe

Arbeitspapier

We examine the relationship between immigration and attitudes toward redistribution using a newly assembled data set of immigrant stocks for 140 regions of 16 Western European countries. Exploiting within-country variations in the share of immigrants at the regional level, we find that native respondents display lower support for redistribution when the share of immigrants in their residence region is higher. This negative association is driven by regions of countries with relatively large Welfare States and by respondents at the center or at the right of the political spectrum. The effects are also stronger when immigrants originate from Middle-Eastern countries, are less skilled than natives, and experience more residential segregation. These results are unlikely to be driven by immigrants' endogenous location choices.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 12130

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions ; Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
• Subject: income redistribution ; population heterogeneity ; welfare systems ; immigration

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Alesina, Alberto ; Murard, Elie ; Rapoport, Hillel
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2019

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/196628
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET