A Readiness to Accept Immigrants in Europe? Individual and Country-Level Characteristics

Abstract

This paper focuses on one aspect of spatial reflexivity—individual readiness to accept immigrants. The singularity of the article is an attempt to include in the analysis both micro- and macro-level characteristics of migration attitudes. European Social Survey data from 23 countries are analysed with a multilevel modelling method. In the theoretical part, Giddens’ structuration approach is used. The results of the analysis show that, although the interests of ethnic groups are important at the micro level, civil commitment to the country is dominant in encouraging individual readiness to accept immigrants. An integrated approach to the ethnic question is required at the macro level; a country's investments in innovation and human resources, in addition to multicultural politics, are essential. A combined analysis of micro- and macro-level variables reveals that individual characteristics tend to equalise different migration policies. Analysis also shows the universality of the structures of agencies and the heterogeneity of the structures of a system when comparing attitudes to migration. I suggest that, in countries where ethnic minorities are perceived as culturally more different, there is a greater need for ‘skills to translate multiculturalism’, mostly in the form of language and media education.

Keywords:

• Attitudes to Immigration
• Structuration Theory
• European Integration
• Multilevel Modelling

Acknowledgements

Research for this article was funded by the Estonian Science Foundation (ETF, project grant No 5845).

Notes

1. The suggested division of immigration policies is only one of many possible ways of classification. Researchers such as Castles and Miller (1998) have also divided countries into classical countries of immigration (Sweden, Canada, Australia), guestworker exclusionary regimes (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), and quasi-assimilationist or post-colonial regimes (France, Britain, the Netherlands).

2. Another potential macro-level variable is the nation, since it is often constructed by the state, national elite or a larger collective. Ethnicity, in this paper, is regarded as a micro-level variable, since it is based on the self-assessment of the surveyed individuals.

3. The quantitative macro-level variables were divided into three categories in such a way that the initial symmetrical shape of the distribution was retained, i.e. a ‘low rate’ accounts approximately for 25–30 per cent of cases, an ‘average rate’ for 40–50 per cent, and a ‘high rate’ for a further 25–30 per cent of cases.

4. The multilevel-modelling method allows analysts to take into account the variability of both individual and state levels. Ordinary linear regression with the method of least squares takes no account of the two possible sources of variability. The focus of a multilevel analysis is not on the individual countries in the sample, but on estimating the patterns of variation in the underlying populations of countries. The general model used in this analysis could be summarised in the following formula: Y _ij = µ + U _j + R _ij , where Y stands for the dependent variable individual readiness to accept immigrants, i and j designate different levels of analysis (i = country, j = individual), where µ is the population mean (i.e. constant), U_j is the specific effect of a macro unit and R_ij is the residual effect of micro unit i within this macro effect.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anu Masso

Anu Masso is Lecturer in the Institute of Journalism and Communication at the University of Tartu