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

38 Pages Posted: 4 Feb 2016

See all articles by Lewis Davis

Lewis Davis

Union College - Department of Economics

Sumit S. Deole

Technical University of Dortmund; Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: December 23, 2015

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 right-wing 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

JEL Classification: D720, F220, Z130

Suggested Citation

Davis, Lewis S. and Deole, Sumit S., Immigration, Attitudes and the Rise of the Political Right: The Role of Cultural and Economic Concerns Over Immigration (December 23, 2015). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 5680, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2727101 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2727101

Lewis S. Davis

Union College - Department of Economics ( email )

Schenectady, NY 12308-3107
United States

Sumit S. Deole (Contact Author)

Technical University of Dortmund ( email )

Friedrich-Wöhler-Weg 6
Dortmund, 44227
Germany

Global Labor Organization (GLO) ( email )

Collogne
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://glabor.org/user/sumitdeole/

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