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Immigration, Attitudes and the Rise of the Political Right: The Role of Cultural and Economic Concerns over Immigration

Lewis S. Davis and Sumit Deole

No 5680, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: With the rise of the far-right parties in the European parliamentary elections, concerns over immigration and national identity have again come into the limelight. In this paper, we document the empirical relationships between immigration, native concerns over the economic and cultural impact of immigration, and the rise of rightwing political parties in Europe. Empirical analysis first establishes the critical and distinct roles played by economic and cultural concerns over immigration in determining citizen’s rightward ideology and voting for right-wing parties. Second, we investigate the determinants of economic and cultural concerns over immigration, finding strong and consistent evidence for the salience hypothesis, which suggests that immigrant share of a country’s population shapes citizen concerns over immigration. Thereafter, we document the roles of macro-level economic and cultural channels in determining the strength of salience effects. Finally, we investigate how the characteristics of the immigrant population affect native concerns over immigration.

Keywords: group threat hypothesis; attitudes toward immigrants; cultural threat; public opinion; immigration policy; and right-wing politics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 F22 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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