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Quantifying Determinants of Immigration Preferences

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  • Hansen, Ole-Petter Moe
  • Legge, Stefan

Abstract

This paper quantifies the relative importance of determinants of individual-level immigration preferences. We develop and estimate a new latent-factor model using survey data on eighteen countries from the European Social Survey from 2014 and 2015. On a metho-dological level, we address several potential problems causing biased estimates. Identifying individual-level economic concerns about immigration, worries about compositional amenities, racism, and altruism as drivers of immigration-related preferences, the estimation results show that racism is quantitatively the most important factor. It is about as important as the joint effect of worries about the economic and non-economic effects of immigration. Furthermore, we document that altruism raises significantly the support for immigration, although it is quantitatively less important than the other factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Hansen, Ole-Petter Moe & Legge, Stefan, 2017. "Quantifying Determinants of Immigration Preferences," Economics Working Paper Series 1710, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:usg:econwp:2017:10
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Besart Avdiu, 2018. "The Effect of Attitudes toward Migrants on Migrant Skill Composition," CESifo Working Paper Series 6919, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Altruism; Compositional Amenities; Economic Concerns; Immigration Preferences; Racism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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