Exposure to Immigration and Admission Preferences: Evidence From France

Political Behavior, Vol. 43, pp. 175-200, March 2021

57 Pages Posted: 10 Nov 2018 Last revised: 2 Nov 2021

See all articles by Katherine Clayton

Katherine Clayton

Stanford University; Dartmouth College

Jeremy Ferwerda

Dartmouth College

Yusaku Horiuchi

Dartmouth College - Department of Government

Date Written: April 29, 2019

Abstract

To what extent does exposure to immigration condition the types of immigrants citizens are willing to admit? Extending the conjoint approach adopted by Hainmueller and Hopkins (2015), this study investigates whether the admission preferences of French natives vary based on personal exposure to immigration, as proxied by local demographics and self-reported social contact. Methodologically, we propose and apply new methods to compare attribute salience across different subgroups of respondents. We find that although an inflow of immigrants into respondents' municipalities has a limited influence on how French natives evaluate prospective immigrants, social contact with immigrants matters. Specifically, French natives who do not frequently interact with immigrants are significantly less favorable toward immigrants from non-western countries, and more favorable toward immigrants from western countries. In contrast, natives who report frequent social interactions with immigrants place less weight on nationality as a criterion for immigrant admission. Although scholars have noted an increasing consensus in immigration attitudes across developed democracies, our findings suggest that individual experiences with immigration condition preferences for immigration policy at the national level.

Keywords: Immigration, Social Contact Theory, Group Threat Theory, Conjoint Analysis, France

JEL Classification: F22, D72, D83

Suggested Citation

Clayton, Katherine and Ferwerda, Jeremy and Horiuchi, Yusaku, Exposure to Immigration and Admission Preferences: Evidence From France (April 29, 2019). Political Behavior, Vol. 43, pp. 175-200, March 2021, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3268904 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3268904

Katherine Clayton

Stanford University ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States

Dartmouth College ( email )

Hanover, NH 03755
United States

Jeremy Ferwerda

Dartmouth College ( email )

Department of Sociology
Hanover, NH 03755
United States

Yusaku Horiuchi (Contact Author)

Dartmouth College - Department of Government ( email )

204 Silsby Hall
HB 6108
Hanover, NH 03755
United States

HOME PAGE: http://horiuchi.org

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