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Utilitarian and Ideological Determinants of Attitudes towards Immigration: Germany Before and After the “Migration Crisis”

Utilitarian and Ideological Determinants of Attitudes towards Immigration: Germany Before and After the “Migration Crisis”
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Year:    2021

Author:    Welsch, Heinz

Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Vol. 141 (2021), Iss. 3 : pp. 215–242

Abstract

Explanations of attitudes towards immigration include those that take a utilitarian perspective, focusing on immigration’s real-world impacts, and others that look at immigration attitudes from the point of view of ideological affiliation. Focusing on the German “migration crisis” as a case study, this paper seeks to disentangle the roles of these types of explanation, placing an emphasis on possible connections between them. Specifically, the paper studies whether and to what extent perceptions of immigration impacts are related to people’s ideological position through identity-protective cognition, implying an indirect channel through which ideology may shape attitudes toward immigration policies. Using data for 2014 – 2018, the paper finds that attitudes toward immigration were more strongly related to immigration’s perceived economic and cultural impacts than to ideological position, even accounting for dependence of perceptions on ideology. Ideology-dependence of impact perceptions existed with respect to both economic and cultural impacts but was stronger with respect to the latter than the former. After the migration crisis, perceptions of economic impacts became less important in shaping immigration attitudes relative to perceptions of cultural impacts, and the latter became more ideology-dependent.

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Journal Article Details

Publisher Name:    Global Science Press

Language:    English

DOI:    https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.141.3.215

Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Vol. 141 (2021), Iss. 3 : pp. 215–242

Published online:    2021-07

AMS Subject Headings:    Duncker & Humblot

Copyright:    COPYRIGHT: © Global Science Press

Pages:    28

Keywords:    F22 J15 O15 Z13 Immigration Identity Cognition Germany Migration Crisis

Author Details

Welsch, Heinz

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  94. Scheve, K. and M. J. Slaughter. 2001. “Labor Market Competition and Individual Preferences over Immigration Policy.” Review of Economics and Statistics 83 (1): 133 – 45.  Google Scholar
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  96. Sherman, D. K. and G. L. Cohen. 2006. “The Psychology of Self-Defense: Self-Affirmation Theory.” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38 (1): 183 – 242.  Google Scholar
  97. Stockemer, D., A. Niemann, D. Unger, and J. Speyer. 2020. “The ‘Refugee Crisis,’ Immigration Attitudes, and Euroscepticism.” International Migration Review 54 (3): 883 – 912.  Google Scholar
  98. Van der Brug W., M. Fennema, and J. N. Tillie. 2000. “Anti-Immigrant Parties in Europe: Ideological or Protest Vote?” European Journal of Political Research 37 (1): 77 – 102.  Google Scholar
  99. Van der Brug, W. and J. Van Spanje. 2009. “Immigration, Europe and the ‘new’ cultural dimension.” European Journal of Political Research 48 (3): 309 – 34.  Google Scholar
  100. Zuell, C. and E. Scholz. 2019. “Construct Equivalence of Left-Right Scale Placement in a Cross-National Perspective.” International Journal of Sociology 49 (1): 77 – 95.  Google Scholar

Section Title Page Action Price
Utilitarian and Ideological Determinants of Attitudestowards Immigration: Germany Before and Afterthe “Migration Crisis”* 1
Abstract 1
1. Introduction 1
2. Background and Literature 3
2.1 The German “Migration Crisis” 3
2.2 Conceptual Background 4
2.3 Existing Evidence on Sources of Immigration Attitudes 5
2.4 Identity-Protective Cognition 6
2.5 Guiding Assumptions 7
3. Data and Descriptive Background 7
3.1 Data Sources and Definition of Variables 7
3.2 Sample Characteristics 9
4. Analytical Framework and Results 11
4.1 Model and Empirical Approach 11
4.2 Main Estimation Results 13
4.3 Alternative Ideology Indicator 16
4.4. Summary of Main Empirical Findings 19
5. Discussion and Conclusions 21
References 23