DATA-SURVEY: Migrant Acceptance Index: A Global Examination of the Relationship Between Interpersonal Contact and Attitudes toward Migrants

John H. Fleming, Neli Esipova, Anita Pugliese, Julie Ray and Rajesh Srinivasan
Additional contact information
John H. Fleming: Gallup, United States
Neli Esipova: The Gallup World Poll, United States
Anita Pugliese: Gallup, United States
Julie Ray: The Gallup World Poll, United States
Rajesh Srinivasan: United States

Border Crossing, 2018, vol. 8, issue 1, 103-132

Abstract: Using independently sampled Gallup World Poll survey data from 140 countries, we explored the relationship between interpersonal contact and attitudes toward migrants from a perspective not typically found in the social psychological literature. We hypothesized that respondents who report personally knowing a migrant living in their home country would be more accepting of migrants generally (using a three-item Migrant Acceptance Index (MAI) score) than respondents who do not know a migrant. Results supported our hypothesis in 134 of the 140 countries suggesting that the strong relationship between interpersonal contact and attitudes toward migrants is near-universal. We also quantified migrant acceptance at the country level, finding a wide spectrum of attitudes toward migrants. Low acceptance countries were located primarily in Eastern and Southeastern Europe and high acceptance countries were located in Northern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. We discuss these results in the context of interpersonal contact theory (Allport, 1954) and the larger context of global migration.

Keywords: migrant acceptance; attitudes; interpersonal contact; Gallup World Poll (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.tplondon.com/index.php/bc/article/view/576/541 (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:mig:bcwpap:v:8:y:2018:i:1:p:103-132

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://bordercrossi ... ormation/librarians/

Access Statistics for this article

Border Crossing is currently edited by Prof Ibrahim Sirkeci and Dr. Dilara Seker

More articles in Border Crossing from Transnational Press London, UK
Bibliographic data for series maintained by TPLondon ().