From Individual Attitudes towards Migrants to Migration Policy Outcomes: Theory and Evidence
57 Pages Posted: 5 Jun 2008
There are 2 versions of this paper
From Individual Attitudes towards Migrants to Migration Policy Outcomes: Theory and Evidence
From Individual Attitudes towards Migrants to Migration Policy Outcomes: Theory and Evidence
Abstract
In democratic societies individual attitudes of voters represent the foundations of policy making. We start by analyzing patterns in public opinion on migration and find that, across countries of different income levels, only a small minority of voters favour more open migration policies. Next we investigate the determinants of voters' preferences towards immigration from a theoretical and empirical point of view. Our analysis supports the role played by economic channels (labour market, welfare state, efficiency gains) using both the 1995 and 2003 rounds of the ISSP survey. The second part of the paper examines how attitudes translate into a migration policy outcome. We consider two alternative political-economy frameworks: the median voter and the interest groups model. On the one hand, the restrictive policies in place across destination countries and the very low fractions of voters favouring immigration are consistent with the median voter framework. At the same time, given the extent of individual-level opposition to immigration that appears in the data, it is somewhat puzzling, in a median-voter perspective, that migration flows take place at all. Interest-groups dynamics have the potential to explain this puzzle. We find evidence from regression analysis supporting both political-economy frameworks.
Keywords: immigration, immigration policy, median voter, interest groups, political economy
JEL Classification: F22, J61
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Who is Against Immigration? A Cross-Country Investigation of Individual Attitudes Toward Immigrants
-
Labor-Market Competition and Individual Preferences Over Immigration Policy
-
The Political Economy of Immigration Restriction in the United States, 1890 to 1921
-
Racial and Economic Factors in Attitudes to Immigration
By Christian Dustmann and Ian Preston
-
Tax Burden and Migration: a Political Economy Theory and Evidence
By Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka, ...
-
Tax Burden and Migration: A Political Economy Perspective
By Assaf Razin and Efraim Sadka
-
International Migration and International Trade
By Assaf Razin and Efraim Sadka
-
Public Finance and Individual Preferences Over Globalization Strategies
By Gordon H. Hanson, Kenneth Scheve, ...