Competition for People as Drivers of Future Economic Growth: European People’s Attitudes Towards Migration

Abstract

The paper follows an argument that the key elements of global competition are no longer trade of goods and services and flows of capital, but the competition for people. We claim that economic growth is driven by educated and innovative people, who prefer to live and migrate to countries that are diverse, tolerant and open to newcomers. Countries should compete for educated and diverse people and therefore a positive attitude to migration is an important argument for future economic growth. We analysed peoples’ attitudes to migration in 23 European countries based on the micro-data of the European Social Survey fourth round database. The outcomes of the empirical analysis show that European peoples’ attitudes toward immigrants vary depending on 1) personal characteristics of the respondents; 2) country’s characteristics; 3) peoples’ attitudes towards countries’ institutions. The results of the study provide empirical evidence based grounds for development of policy measures for improving peoples’ attitudes to immigration and to ethnically diverse human capital that support future economic growth.

Keywords: attitudes, immigration, tolerance, economic growth, policy implications

JEL Classification: O40, R11, C31, P51