Why Citizens Prefer High- Over Low-Skilled Immigrants. Labor Market Competition, Welfare State, and Deservingness

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 595-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Helbling ◽  
H. Kriesi
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Skilled Immigrants

scholarly journals Attitudes toward Highly Skilled and Low-skilled Immigration: Evidence from a Survey Experiment

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
JENS HAINMUELLER ◽  
MICHAEL J. HISCOX
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Skill Levels ◽  
Skilled Immigrants ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
Highly Skilled ◽  
Skilled Immigration

Past research has emphasized two critical economic concerns that appear to generate anti-immigrant sentiment among native citizens: concerns about labor market competition and concerns about the fiscal burden on public services. We provide direct tests of both models of attitude formation using an original survey experiment embedded in a nationwide U.S. survey. The labor market competition model predicts that natives will be most opposed to immigrants who have skill levels similar to their own. We find instead that both low-skilled and highly skilled natives strongly prefer highly skilled immigrants over low-skilled immigrants, and this preference is not decreasing in natives' skill levels. The fiscal burden model anticipates that rich natives oppose low-skilled immigration more than poor natives, and that this gap is larger in states with greater fiscal exposure (in terms of immigrant access to public services). We find instead that rich and poor natives are equally opposed to low-skilled immigration in general. In states with high fiscal exposure, poor (rich) natives are more (less) opposed to low-skilled immigration than they are elsewhere. This indicates that concerns among poor natives about constraints on welfare benefits as a result of immigration are more relevant than concerns among the rich about increased taxes. Overall the results suggest that economic self-interest, at least as currently theorized, does not explain voter attitudes toward immigration. The results are consistent with alternative arguments emphasizing noneconomic concerns associated with ethnocentrism or sociotropic considerations about how the local economy as a whole may be affected by immigration.

Natives’ skills and attitudes towards immigrants: evidence from 20 OECD countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-471
Author(s):  
Seong Hee Kim
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
Skilled Immigrants ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Data Limitations ◽  
Age Cohort

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether natives’ attitudes toward immigration is associated with an influx of high- and low-skilled immigrants. The current research focuses on selected 20 OECD countries as destination countries. Design/methodology/approach A pseudo-panel based on age cohort is constructed to control for the potential unobservable individual characteristics. The random effects and within estimators (where applicable) are applied in the panel-data setting. Findings Regression results indicate that natives’ attitudes depend on their labor market exposure and skill type. Low-skill immigrant inflows are negatively associated with natives’ attitudes, but the magnitude is reduced proportionally to their share of the high skilled. The association between immigrant flows and attitudes is particularly strong for the prime-age cohorts, which can be explained by the labor market competition mechanism. Research limitations/implications Given the data limitations, not all destination countries could be analyzed but only selected OECD countries. However, this situation has resulted in the sample destination countries sharing similar characteristics with advanced economies. Originality/value Although the majority of previous studies are based on survey questions on attitudes toward immigrants with respective skill type, the current study focuses on the effects of the actual immigration flows. Natives’ attitudes respond sensitively to the actual changes in the number of migrants. The selection of OECD countries makes the characteristics of the destination countries substantially homogeneous.

scholarly journals Economic Distress and Support for Radical Right Parties—Evidence From Sweden

2021 ◽  
pp. 001041402110243
Author(s):  
Sirus H. Dehdari
Keyword(s):  
Market Competition ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Aggregate Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Skilled Immigrants ◽  
Economic Distress ◽  
Radical Right Parties ◽  
Unemployment Risk ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
High Share

This paper studies the effects of economic distress on support for radical right parties. Using Swedish election data, I show that one layoff notice among low-skilled native-born workers increases, on average, support for the Swedish radical right party the Sweden Democrats by 0.17–0.45 votes. The relationship between layoff notices and support for the Sweden Democrats is stronger in areas with a high share of low-skilled immigrants and in areas with a low share of high-skilled immigrants. These findings are in line with theories suggesting that economically distressed voters oppose immigration as they fear increased labor market competition. In addition, I use individual-level survey data to show that self-reported unemployment risk is positively associated with voting for the Sweden Democrats among low-skilled respondents while the opposite is true for high-skilled respondents, echoing the aggregate-level findings.

Welcoming Immigrants with Similar Occupational Interests: Experimental Survey Evidence from Hong Kong

2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 391-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siu-yau Lee ◽  
Lina Vyas ◽  
Kee-lee Chou
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Occupational Prestige ◽  
Skill Levels ◽  
Skilled Immigrants ◽  
Occupational Interests ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Experimental Survey

Recent studies in America and Europe suggest that individual economic self-interest plays little role in explaining individual attitudes towards immigrants. A key piece of evidence for this proposition is that natives do not show particular hostility towards immigrants whose skill levels are similar to their own. We conducted an experimental survey of Hong Kong residents to examine their attitudes towards immigrants from Mainland China. We found that positive attitudes towards low-skilled immigrants were more prevalent among local labourers – whose job security would presumably be under greater threat from them – than among executives and professionals. Similarly, the premium attached to highly skilled immigrants increases significantly with locals’ occupational prestige, suggesting that immigrants are more likely to find support among natives who share similar occupational interests. Our results remain robust even after controlling for a range of potential explanatory variables. We conclude with a critical discussion of the use of skill levels to estimate the occupational interests of natives and assess the value of relying on the conventional labour market competition model to generate hypotheses about the role of economic self-interest in shaping immigration preferences.

Is social investment inimical to the poor?

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 857-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Noël
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Investment Strategy ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Active Labor ◽  
Active Labor Market Programs ◽  
Active Labor Market

Abstract In the last two decades, the social investment strategy has been the main approach to welfare state reform. Concretely, two spending programs have dominated the agenda: the expansion of active labor market programs and the development of childcare services. Many authors have suspected, however, that these social investments were realized at the expense of income protection for the poor. This article assesses this potential trade-off with time-series cross-sectional models of the determinants of active labor market policies expenditures, childcare spending and the adequacy of minimum income protection (MIP), for 18 OECD countries between 1990 and 2009. It turns out that social investments are rather akin to traditional welfare state programs, and are explained by similar institutional, political and economic factors. More importantly, they do not develop at the expense of income protection. Social investment initiatives are consistent with the usual politics of the welfare state and, overall, they are not inimical to the poor.

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