Explaining Attitudes Toward Refugees and Immigrants in Europe
| Date | 01 February 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032321720950217 |
| Author | Liza G Steele,Lamis Abdelaaty |
| Published date | 01 February 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321720950217
Political Studies
2022, Vol. 70(1) 110 –130
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0032321720950217
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Explaining Attitudes Toward
Refugees and Immigrants
in Europe
Lamis Abdelaaty1 and Liza G Steele2
Abstract
While there is a large literature on attitudes toward immigrants, scholars have not systematically
examined the determinants of attitudes toward refugees. Often, refugees are simply treated
as a subset of immigrants, under the assumption that attitudes toward both sets of foreigners
are similar. In this article, we examine whether there are distinctions between attitudes toward
refugees and immigrants, as well as variation in their determinants. We address these questions
using individual-level data from 16 countries in the 2002 and 2014 waves of the European Social
Survey. We demonstrate that these two groups of foreigners are, indeed, viewed as distinct and
that differences emerge because attitudes toward refugees are more often related to macro-level
factors while immigrants are more frequently associated with micro-level economic concerns.
By distinguishing between refugees and immigrants, this article addresses an important gap in the
academic literature on attitudes toward foreigners in Europe.
Keywords
refugees, migration, attitudes, Europe
Accepted: 22 July 2020
Introduction
In recent years, the varied fates of refugees arriving in Western countries have cap-
tured headlines. For example, the government in Denmark has prolonged the wait time
for family reunifications, cut refugee benefits, and passed a bill that would confiscate
would-be refugees’ valuables (Witte, 2016). In contrast, under Chancellor Angela
Merkel, Germany committed to accept nearly all asylum seekers found to be legiti-
mate refugees and welcomed more than 1 million into the country in 2015 (Dewan and
Hanna, 2016).
1Department of Political Science, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University,
Syracuse, NY, USA
2Department of Sociology, City University of New York, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York,
NY, USA
Corresponding author:
Lamis Abdelaaty, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244,
USA.
Email: labdelaa@maxwell.syr.edu
950217PSX0010.1177/0032321720950217Political StudiesAbdelaaty and Steele
research-article2020
Article
Abdelaaty and Steele 111
As demonstrations supporting and opposing refugees were taking place across Europe,
commentators emphasized the role of public opinion in shaping these and other countries’
policies (e.g. Hasselbach, 2016). While a clear majority of Germans supported admitting
refugees and those facing political persecution, at least temporarily (Gerhards et al.,
2016), the percentage of Danish voters who opposed granting more residence permits to
migrants rose by 17 points in just a few months (Delman, 2016).
Despite the potentially unique implications of public opinion on refugees, research on
the topic remains sparse. Exceptions such as Bansak et al. (2016) and Von Hermanni and
Neumann (2018) focus on which asylum-seeker attributes affect natives’ assessments of
them. Only one study to date has compared individual attitudes on immigrants and refu-
gees (Coenders et al., 2004); the authors conclude that there were more similarities than
differences in attitudes toward the two groups. Several studies on attitudes toward non-
citizens have not distinguished between immigrants and refugees; some scholars have
examined attitudes toward all “foreigners” (Gang et al., 2013; Kessler and Freeman,
2005; Semyonov et al., 2006) while others have analyzed minorities and foreigners as a
single undifferentiated group. Justifying the construction of a single additive index,
Ivarsflaten (2005) even argues that underlying preferences on immigration and asylum
range along a single dimension, from liberal to restrictive policies. The claim is that
“western Europeans do not generally support liberal immigration policies while insisting
on restrictive refugee policies, or vice versa” (Ivarsflaten, 2005: 27).
Thus, we know little about whether attitudes toward refugees and immigrants differ,
and we cannot distinguish how macro-level national circumstances and micro-level
demographic characteristics are related to such support. Although data on attitudes toward
refugees are extremely limited, the 2002 and 2014 waves of the European Social Survey
(ESS) include relevant measures. In this article, we begin to address the determinants of
attitudes toward refugees by examining ESS data from 16 European countries. We show
that individuals hold different views of refugees and immigrants and are, at times, more
receptive to one group than the other. By and large, attitudes toward refugees are more
often related to macro-level factors while immigrants are more frequently associated with
micro-level economic concerns.
Attitudes Toward Migrants
Since we do not know whether survey respondents’ attitudes differ in their assessments of
immigrants versus refugees, we begin by drawing from legal and policy explanations of
distinctions between immigrants and refugees, as well as distinctions in the rhetoric
employed in the public sphere to refer to these two groups of foreigners. We then examine
major findings from the literature on attitudes toward immigrants, which emphasize the
role of micro-level variables like occupation and income as well as macro-economic con-
ditions in shaping public receptivity to immigrants. We also consider other macro-level
factors drawn from theories of social psychology.
Often, refugees are simply treated as a subset of immigrants, under the assumption that
attitudes toward both sets of foreigners are similar. Both immigrants and refugees are
foreign newcomers, but there is a distinction in law and policy between the two groups.
There is a well-established international regime for refugees, based on the 1951
Refugee Convention as well as the activities of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR). The principle of non-refoulement, which has become a prin-
ciple of customary international law, prohibits returning an individual to a country
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