Do Attitudes to Immigrants Change in Hard Times? Ireland in a European Context

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The enlargement of the European Union (EU) and the subsequent global economic recession has drawn attention to individual-level attitudes towards immigrants across Europe. In this context, using the European Social Survey (ESS), we compared Irish attitudes towards immigrants with those in 12 other European countries at 3 critical moments in time – prior to large immigration flows in 2002; at the height of the economic boom in 2006; and after the global financial crash in 2008. Our descriptive analysis examines whether significant changes in attitudes towards immigrants has occurred in the EU as a whole and within individual countries over time. We predicted that fluctuations in economic condition such as the rise in unemployment would affect attitudes towards immigrants. This relationship receives some support from our findings. In Ireland, positive attitudes to immigrants between 2006 and 2010 decreased and negative attitudes increased, on all attitudinal measures, more sharply than in any of the other European countries. Taking the 12 countries as a whole, attitudes have tended to polarise particularly with regard to allowing access to immigrants and their impact on the economy. This research reveals worrying trends in attitudes to immigrants in European countries, particularly in light of the importance of immigrants to the European labour market, both currently and in the future.

Key words:

• immigration
• attitudes
• Europe
• economic crisis
• Ireland

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Only three countries in the EU, Ireland, the UK and Sweden, did not place restrictions on the entry of immigrants from the accessions states. Thus, immigrants from the NMS are full European citizens and do not require a work permit or experience any restrictions in seeking work in Ireland.

² Norwegian Social Science Data Services is the data archive and distributor of the ESS data. See Jowell and the Central Co-ordinating Team (2003).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas Turner

Thomas Turner lectures in Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour at the University of Limerick at undergraduate and postgraduate level. His main areas of research and publication include developments in social partnership in Ireland at workplace and national level, knowledge and occupational change, union trends in Ireland and the experiences of immigrants in the Irish labour market.

Christine Cross

Christine Cross is a lecturer in Organisation Behaviour and Human Resource Management at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick. Her main research and publication areas are women in management and the work experiences of migrant workers.