<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Migration has manifested itself to historic highs, creating divisive views among politicians, policy makers, and individuals. The present paper studies the Europeans’ attitudes toward immigration, focusing particularly on the role of social capital. Based on 267,282 respondents from 22 countries and over the period 2002–2014, we find that despite the eventful past years, Europeans, on average, are positive toward immigrants with the North European countries to be the least xenophobic. A salient finding of our analysis is that regardless of the impact of other contextual factors, namely, a country’s macroeconomic conditions, ethnic diversity, cultural origin, and individuals’ attributes, social capital associates with positive attitudes toward all immigrants, independent of their background. Furthermore, social capital moderates the negative effects of perceived threat on people’s opinions about immigrants.</p></abstract>

Migration has manifested itself to historic highs, creating divisive views among politicians, policy makers, and individuals. The present paper studies the Europeans’ attitudes toward immigration, focusing particularly on the role of social capital. Based on 267,282 respondents from 22 countries and over the period 2002–2014, we find that despite the eventful past years, Europeans, on average, are positive toward immigrants with the North European countries to be the least xenophobic. A salient finding of our analysis is that regardless of the impact of other contextual factors, namely, a country’s macroeconomic conditions, ethnic diversity, cultural origin, and individuals’ attributes, social capital associates with positive attitudes toward all immigrants, independent of their background. Furthermore, social capital moderates the negative effects of perceived threat on people’s opinions about immigrants.

The Role of Social Capital in Shaping Europeans’ Immigration Sentiments

IZA Journal of Development and Migration

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"The Role of Social Capital in Shaping Europeans\u2019 Immigration Sentiments"}

Migration has manifested itself to historic highs, creating divisive views among politicians, policy makers, and individuals. The present paper studies the...

The Role of Social Capital in Shaping Europeans’ Immigration Sentiments

Published Online: Mar 10, 2020

Page range: -

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/izajodm-2020-0003

Keywords
immigration, social capital, public attitude, survey, Europe

© 2020 Claire Economidou, Dimitris Karamanis, Alexandra Kechrinioti, Sofia Xesfingi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The Role of Social Capital in Shaping Europeans’ Immigration Sentiments

Published Online: Mar 10, 2020

Page range: -

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/izajodm-2020-0003

Keywordsimmigration, social capital, public attitude, survey, Europe

© 2020 Claire Economidou, Dimitris Karamanis, Alexandra Kechrinioti, Sofia Xesfingi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
immigration, social capital, public attitude, survey, Europe