The Rationality behind Immigration Preferences

Hendrik van Dalen and Kène Henkens
Additional contact information
Kène Henkens: Faculty of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam

No 04-002/1, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: What drives stated preferences about the number of foreigners? Is it self-interest as stressed by the political economy of immigration? Does social interaction affect this preference or is the immigration preference completely in line with the preference for the aggregate population size? In this paper we distinguish each of these categories and show for the case of the Netherlands that each of these elements applies although the effect of population size preference and the self-interest are the most important elements. There is a clear divide across educational levels as the lower educated are more against immigration than the highly educated. Experience with foreigners arising from social contact matters in positively appreciating immigrants, especially if one meets (non-western) foreigners at work and school. Contact with foreigners while going out decreases the preference for immigrants. The ethnic composition of the neighbourhood in which one lives does not ex!ert a significant effect on the evaluation of the number of foreigners present. The biggest effect on immigration preferences is, however, the aggregate population size preference of respondents.

Keywords: Immigration; population; social interaction; public choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J15 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-06-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://papers.tinbergen.nl/04002.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:tin:wpaper:20040002

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tinbergen Office +31 (0)10-4088900 ().