Pro-immigration attitudes amongst highly educated decreasing

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Pro-immigration attitudes amongst highly educated decreasing

Being highly educated no longer automatically leads to more liberal views on immigration, new research from Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien) has found. This long-held assumption is weakening in places where there is high migration.

Drawing on data from the European Social Survey, across 15 European countries, and spanning 16 years, the study by Daniela Weber, Assistant Professor at WU Wien, and her fellow researchers found that while university graduates are, on the whole, more likely to support immigration than those with lower levels of education, this gap significantly narrows when immigration levels rise,.

Pro-immigration attitudes for the highly educated remained stable between 2002 and 2018, but the researchers found that the strength of this link has dramatically weakened.

The results challenge a long-standing assumption in social science. Education does expand horizons and foster liberal values, but in contexts of high immigration, even highly educated citizens might view newcomers as a strain on welfare systems and taxpayers.

The study reveals that economic conditions play a powerful role in this. A high influx of immigrants can heighten perceptions of competition over resources, such as access to social benefits and tax burdens, intensifying perceptions of an economic threat for all.

The difference in economic worries between those with higher and lower levels of education decreases when there is a high influx of immigrants in an area. Economic hardship reduces favourable views of immigration overall, though education still slightly strengthens resilience against negative economic perceptions.

The study was published in the journal Genus.

/ENDS

For more information, a copy of the report, or to speak to the researcher, contact Thomas Willis at BlueSky Education on thomas@bluesky-pr.com or call +44 (0)1582 790 706.