Perceptions of Immigrant Privilege and Public Preferences for Immigration Policy: Evidence from Belgium

Teika Pfeifer, Jean-Michel Lafleur and Abdeslam Marfouk

No 1797, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: Extensive research has identified multiple factors shaping public attitudes toward immigration. Building on theories of relative deprivation, this article contributes to this literature by arguing that perceptions of immigrants' preferential and unfair treatment relative to both native-born citizens and homeless people play a central role in shaping immigration policy preferences toward immigrants from both poorer and richer countries. Using data from an original nationally representative survey, we find that nearly four in ten native-born Belgians (38%) believe immigrants are treated better than native-born citizens, and six in ten (60%) perceive immigrants as privileged relative to homeless people. Our results show that both perceived native-born relative deprivation and perceptions of immigrants' privilege vis-à-vis homeless people are statistically significant and robust predictors of support for restrictive immigration policy toward migrants from both poorer and richer countries. We also found that the belief that immigrants are treated more favourably than native-born citizens exerts a stronger influence on support for restrictive immigration policy toward migrants from poorer countries than immigrants from richer countries.

Keywords: International Migration; Attitudes Toward Immigrants; Relative Deprivation Theory; Immigration Policy Preferences; Public Opinion analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J18 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/342411/1/GLO-DP-1797.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:1797

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().