Acceptable in the EU? Why some immigration restrictionists support European Union mobility
| Author | Scott Blinder,Yvonni Markaki |
| DOI | 10.1177/1465116519839782 |
| Published date | 01 September 2019 |
| Date | 01 September 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Acceptable in the EU?
Why some immigration
restrictionists support
European Union mobility
Scott Blinder
Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
Yvonni Markaki
Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of
Oxford, Oxford, UK
Abstract
Why do some Europeans support immigration from within the European Union, while
rejecting immigration from elsewhere? Acceptance of intra-European Union mobility—
even by those who wish to restrict immigration more generally—is important for
popular support for the European Union itself. This paper identifies and attempts to
explain the preferences of “EU-only inclusionists”: EU nationals who support relatively
high levels of immigration, but only from within the European Union. We analyze an
underexplored experimental module in the European Social Survey to explore
European Union inclusionism in relation to other preference profiles. We find that
identification with the European Union helps explain specific support for European
Union mobility, while subnational (racial and religious) identities are associated with
a preference for European migrants over non-Europeans, but not with specific support
for intra-European Union movement.
Keywords
European Union, immigration attitudes, migration, mobility, supranational identity
Corresponding author:
Scott Blinder, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Thompson Hall, 200
Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01002, USA.
Email: scottblinder@umass.edu
European Union Politics
2019, Vol. 20(3) 468–491
!The Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/1465116519839782
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Introduction
The European Union (EU) requires immigration policy that sharply differentiates
between EU and non-EU nationals. Intra-EU mobility is a foundational right for
EU nationals, one of the basic, non-negotiable “four freedoms”, alongside free
movement of goods, capital, and services. By contrast, member states can and do
develop policies to restrict immigration from non-EU countries. The EU even has
a distinct nomenclature for each type of movement: “mobility” of EU nationals
within EU member states is distinguished from “migration” by “Third Country
Nationals (TCNs)” from outside the EU (Ruhs, 2017).
However, European publics may not make the same sharp distinction (Geddes
and Hadj-Abdou, 2016). The disjuncture between public understandings of immi-
gration and elite rhetoric and policy may pose a significant challenge to the ongo-
ing public support for the EU itself. Anti-immigration public opinion was essential
to the Brexit movement (Goodwin and Milazzo, 2017), and has created pressure
for new restrictions on free movement in other EU states, which the EU has
resisted (Ruhs, 2018). This environment makes it an urgent matter for policy-
makers and scholars to understand whether EU citizens recognize the fundamental
distinction between intra-EU mobility and non-EU migration, and what if any-
thing generates support for this differentiation. However, little research examines
EU citizens’ attitudes toward immigration across this fundamental policy divid-
ing line.
This study addresses this gap in the literature. We focus on understanding
what we call Europe-only and EU-only inclusionism: the pattern in which
individuals support immigration from within Europe or the EU while opposing
immigration from the rest of the world. Thus, we ask: why do some Europeans
favor European immigration, while opposing immigration from other parts of
the world?
We analyze attitudes of nationals/citizens across 20 countries of the EU and the
European Free Trade Association (EFTA) with survey data from the European
Social Survey (ESS). Our research design distinguishes between support for EU or
European inflows, from a general support for immigration or a preference for non-
EU/non-European inflows. We then use discrete choice models to analyze the
determinants of distinct patterns of immigration preferences, particularly focusing
on support for intra-European migration. Descriptively, we find that Europe-
specific inclusionism is relatively rare, highlighting the challenge facing supporters
of free movement. Our analysis further shows that support for immigration from
Europe can come from supranational identification with the EU, but can also arise
from exclusionary versions of more parochial subgroup identities, particularly
along religious lines. Our study adds to a growing literature on the role of supra-
national or cosmopolitan identities (Hooghe and Marks, 2018; Teney et al., 2013)
in support for the EU and its policies.
Blinder and Markaki 469
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