A solidarity bias? Assessing the effects of individual transnationalism on redistributive solidarity in the EU

Figures & data

Figure 1. Support for different types of solidarity in ten EU countries.

Notes: The figure reports the share of respondents agreeing with solidarities with 95% C. I., ordered by support for general redistributive solidarity and computed with post-stratification weights. The variables were recoded into binary variables to ease presentation. Mobility-related solidarities were coded 0 for answers ‘Somewhat disagree’ and ‘Strongly disagree’ and as 1 for ‘Somewhat agree’ and ‘Strongly agree’; redistribution as 0 (Against redistribution/Neutral) if answers ranged between 5 and 10 and as 1 if they ranged between 0 and 4 (In favour). Source: REScEU survey.

Table 1. Operationalization of individual transnationalism in EU10 countries.

Dimension	Item	% Respondents
Transnational background	More than one citizenship	2.4%
	At least one of your parents is born in another EU member state.	10.4%
	Your spouse/partner is born in another EU member state.	7.7%
Physical mobility	You have lived in another EU member state for at least three months for work, study, or family reasons.	15.8%
	You have visited another EU member state in the last twelve months.	51.9%
Transnational contacts	A member of your family or a close relative lives in another EU member state.	31.0%
	You have friends who are from other EU member states.	50.5%
	You often communicate with foreign people living in other EU member states via the Internet or email.	34.7%
	Your job involves contact with organizations or people who live in other EU member states.	23.1%
	In your workplace, you are in contact with people coming from other EU member states.	33.4%
Intercultural competence	You sometimes read newspapers and online journals in a language different from your mother tongue.	40.8%
	You often watch TV programmes, series, or movies in foreign languages (also subtitled).	57.9%
	You enjoy reading foreign books in their original language.	25.4%
	You sometimes purchase goods and services using a language different from your mother tongue.	53.0%
N = 14,579

Note: Percentages computed excluding ‘Don’t knows’.

Source: REScEU survey.

Figure 2. Average transnationalism in the 10 EU countries surveyed.

Note: Country averages. Source: REScEU survey.

Figure 3. Support for solidarity across levels of transnationalism.

Notes: The figure reports average weighted percentages (markers) with 95% confidence intervals (lines). See the note in Figure 2 for details regarding the dichotomization of the three variables.

Figure 4. Standardized estimates for transnationalism and support for redistribution and mobility-related solidarities with correlated errors.

Note: Standardized coefficients from models in Table 2 and Table H of the Online Appendix.

Table 2. Standardized coefficients of direct effects from the structural equation model.

Direct effects	Welfare all	P>|z|	Welfare EU	P>|z|	Redistribution	P>|z|
Redistribution	0.065	0.000	0.075	0.000	–	–
Transnationalism	0.120	0.000	0.126	0.000	−0.062	0.000
Female	0.001	0.946	−0.027	0.003	−0.023	0.015
Age	−0.021	0.061	0.008	0.477	0.045	0.000
Education (in years)	−0.006	0.516	0.011	0.254	0.013	0.176
Occupation (ref: unemployed)
Employers & Self-employed	0.004	0.790	−0.001	0.923	−0.031	0.029
Salaried middle class	−0.013	0.516	−0.020	0.315	−0.009	0.654
Sociocultural specialists	−0.016	0.246	−0.019	0.156	0.006	0.656
Service & production workers	0.009	0.552	0.010	0.498	0.017	0.272
Welfare recipients	0.030	0.105	0.025	0.153	−0.002	0.910
Other inactive	0.022	0.127	0.015	0.288	−0.007	0.633
(Very) Difficult to cope on HH income	−0.029	0.003	−0.009	0.346	0.068	0.000
Important to help others	0.113	0.000	0.078	0.000	0.101	0.000
Exclusive national identity	−0.056	0.000	−0.054	0.000	−0.013	0.210
EU integration (std)	0.205	0.000	0.241	0.000	0.023	0.032
Left-Right (std)	−0.119	0.000	−0.088	0.000	−0.211	0.000
Immigrants increased	−0.044	0.000	−0.017	0.064	−0.008	0.409
Country (ref: Germany)
Greece	0.113	0.000	0.208	0.000	−0.054	0.000
Italy	0.127	0.000	0.177	0.000	−0.011	0.387
Hungary	0.019	0.125	0.138	0.000	0.112	0.000
Finland	−0.004	0.779	0.021	0.092	−0.224	0.000
France	0.043	0.000	0.033	0.004	−0.073	0.000
Netherlands	0.047	0.000	0.021	0.079	−0.039	0.002
Poland	0.082	0.000	0.137	0.000	−0.059	0.000
Spain	0.089	0.000	0.088	0.000	−0.078	0.000
Sweden	0.079	0.000	0.041	0.001	−0.054	0.000

Note: R² Welfare all 0.184; Welfare EU 0.237; Redistribution 0.157; Overall 0.385. N: 9778.

Table 3. Standardized effects of transnationalism and redistribution on mobility solidarities with correlated residuals.

Outcome	Direct effect	Indirect effect	Total effect
Redistribution
Transnationalism → Redistribution	−0.827***	–	−0.827***
Welfare Europeans
Transnationalism → Welfare EU citizens	0.520***	−0.019***	0.501***
Redistribution → Welfare EU citizens	0.023***	–	0.023***
Welfare All foreigners
Transnationalism → Welfare All foreigners	0.507***	−0.017***	0.490***
Redistribution → Welfare All foreigners	0.021***	–	0.020***

Note: N = 9778. The significance levels shown here are for the unstandardized solution. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001. Coefficients of control variables not reported are available in the Online Appendix Table H.

Figure 5. Change in the predicted probability of solidarities across levels of transnationalism.

Note: Predicted probabilities computed from models in Table 2 and Table H of the Online Appendix with an underlying distribution of transnationalism.