POLITICAL IDEOLOGY AND INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL ATTITUDES

TOWARDS IMMIGRATION

IN THE EUROPEAN UNION:EVIDENCE FROM THE

EUROPEAN VALUES STUDY, 2008/2009

Marek Hlaváč

June 14th, 2011

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.) How does an individual’s political ideology affect his or her:

a) attitudes towards immigration?b) immigration policy preferences?

2.) Does the effect differ by country?

DATA: European Values Study, 2008/2009

INSTEAD OF AFFILIATION WITH

THE POLITICAL RIGHT, USE 3 DIMENSIONS:

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DEPENDENT VARIABLESa)Immigration Attitudes Index

IMMIGRATION ATTITUDES INDEX

DEPENDENT VARIABLESb) Permissive Immigration Policy Dummy

IMMIGRATION POLICY PREFERENCES

DEPENDENT VARIABLESb) Permissive Immigration Policy Dummy

INDEPENDENT VARIABLESi) Laissez-Faire Index

LAISSEZ-FAIRE INDEX

INDEPENDENT VARIABLESii) Index of Social Traditionalism

INDEX OF SOCIAL TRADITIONALISM

INDEPENDENT VARIABLESiii) National/civic pride

EMPIRICAL MODELa)Attitudes towards immigrants:

b)Policy preferences:

RESULTS: POOLED EU-27a)Attitudes towards immigrants:

RESULTS: POOLED EU-27b) Policy preferences:

RESULTS: BY COUNTRYa) Attitudes towards immigrants:

RESULTS: BY COUNTRYb) Policy preferences:

DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIO-

ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS:

-Age: substantively insignificant-Gender: no effect-Foreign born and student: large positive-Education: positive association-Employment: small positive

POLICY IMPLICATIONS-Political success and survival-Country heterogeneity Modesty

Other independent variables:-Optimal investment in education-Immigration system design-Foreign aid programs-Income redistribution-Aging of the European population

THANK YOU!

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