Varieties of Public Attitudes Towards Immigration: Evidence from Survey Experiments in Japan

Abstract

Drawing on survey experiments in Japan, we dimensionalize attitudes towards immigration along cultural and economic lines as well as along a negative-positive continuum to capture natives' multifaceted attitudes toward immigrants. Even in a relatively closed country like Japan, 24 percent favor immigration on both grounds, and more importantly, another 40 percent favor immigration on either economic or cultural ground, underscoring the importance of cross-cutting preferences. Consistent with prior research, we find that educated citizens are more likely to appreciate immigrants both for economic and cultural reasons. We also find that different types of natives are likely to prefer different types of immigrants. Uncovering multidimensional attitudes towards immigrants opens possible avenues for coalition building around immigration policy reform.

Keywords: immigrants, discrimination, survey experiments, Japan