How Economic Worries Affect Attitudes Towards Migration — Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Germany

Lena von Deylen, Erik Wengström and Philipp Christoph Wichardt

No 12561, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: This paper reports results from a preregistered survey experiment (ca. 2000) designed to test the connection between economic worries and individual attitudes toward migration and universalism. The experiment was conducted in Germany in February 2025, prior to the general elections, at a time when the German economy had been facing difficulties for some some years. Subjects were assigned to one of four treatments -- one neutral baseline and three setting with varying information about the economy and a question about how threatening the subject's perceive this to be (in general and for them personally). The data show that prompting subjects to reflect on their economic concerns increases migration scepticism and tends to reduce universalism compared to a non-economic control treatment. With respect to the current political polarisation and the rise of (anti-immigrant) populist movements, the findings suggest that reported reservations about migration are likely to be at least partly driven by worries and uncertainties in other domains.

Keywords: economic crisis; anxiety; migration; polarisation; political preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 O15 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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