Is the “Devil” As Black As He’s Painted? the Impact of the Political Discourse, Education and Age on Attitudes Toward Immigration in Europe

While migration is an inherent part of contemporary Western societies, it poses challenges both to migrating populations and hosting societies. Numerous claims suggesting a correlation between immigration, cultural changes and economic situation are being made by the re-emerging radical right in contemporary European countries. This paper sheds light on the current state of affairs and enrich the research in the field by combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. We attempt to evaluate attitudes to immigration by disentangling the impact of individual demographic factors, such as education and age, and contextual factors manifested in terms of portraying immigration as a cultural and economic threat.

This cross-sectional, panel study examines the change in general, cultural and economic aspects of attitude toward immigration in 16 European countries between 2002 and 2014. Data from the European Social Survey (ESS) were obtained to measure individual-level parameters, while data from the Eurostat and OECD were used to account for macro-level parameters, such as immigration rate. Moreover, party manifestos and media coverage were gathered for qualitative analysis of the political discourse in the selected European countries. The empirical framework here tests the hypotheses that a higher level of educational attainment will foster a more favourable attitude toward immigration in the above-mentioned aspects, while the effect of age will be reversed. Furthermore, we expect that younger respondents with a higher level of educational attainment will retain a more favourable attitude toward immigration, despite the new radical right’s attempts to present immigration as a “cultural threat” and “economic calamity”.