Immigration and redistribution revisited: how different motivations can offset each other

Despite compelling theoretical arguments, research has failed so far to provide conclusive empirical evidence on the relationship between preferences for redistribution and attitudes towards immigration. We argue that social scientists risk making erroneous inferences if the causal link connecting a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of European social policy 2013-10, Vol.23 (4), p.406-422
Main Authors: Emmenegger, Patrick, Klemmensen, Robert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Associations
Attitudes
Egalitarianism
Empirical research
Immigration
Income redistribution
Motivation
Preferences
Risk
Social policy
Social Scientists
Variables
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Summary:Despite compelling theoretical arguments, research has failed so far to provide conclusive empirical evidence on the relationship between preferences for redistribution and attitudes towards immigration. We argue that social scientists risk making erroneous inferences if the causal link connecting an independent variable to a given outcome is not carefully modelled. This is particularly true in the presence of multiple and partly offsetting intervening variables. We argue that there are at least four motivations linking attitudes towards redistribution and preferred levels of immigration. We observe a statistically significant association between attitudes towards redistribution and preferred levels of immigration, but only after the motivations have been explicitly integrated into the empirical analysis. If the motivations are not explicitly modelled, no systematic relationship between attitudes towards redistribution and preferred levels of immigration can be observed.
ISSN:0958-9287
1461-7269
DOI:10.1177/0958928713507464