Why do women tend to oppose immigration more than men? I argue that this opposition to immigration is caused by women’s labor market vulnerabilities. As immigrants increasingly enter sectors traditionally dominated by women, non-immigrant women may perceive immigrants as a threat. Drawing on two original surveys with embedded experiments conducted on nationally representative samples in Japan, I find that information emphasizing the economic necessity of immigrants increases favorability toward immigrants among Japanese men but not women. Japanese women, especially those in non-professional jobs, show increased hostility toward immigrant women when exposed to such information. These findings highlight the importance of considering the interplay between gender and labor market position in shaping immigration attitudes. This research contributes to the literature on the political economy of immigration and gender politics and underscores the need for gender-sensitive approaches in immigration policymaking, particularly in countries with persistent gender inequalities.
AlexanderS. H.SimonR. J. (1993). The ambivalent welcome: Print media, public opinion and immigration. Praeger.
2.
AminS.DiamondI.NavedR. T.NewbyM. (1998). Transition to adulthood of female garment-factory workers in Bangladesh. Studies in Family Planning, 29(2), 185–200. https://doi.org/10.2307/172158
3.
AntfolkJ.JohanssonL.WesterlundM.MarcinkowskaU. M.SanttilaP. (2018). The role of intra-sexual competition in attitudes towards immigrants. Personality and Individual Differences, 132, 84–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.05.029
4.
AsisE.CarandangR. R. (2020). The plight of migrant care workers in Japan: A qualitative study of their stressors on caregiving. Journal of Migration and Health, 1–2, Article 100001. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmh.2020.100001
BanaszakL. A.PlutzerE. (1993). Contextual determinants of feminist attitudes: National and subnational influences in Western Europe. American Political Science Review, 87(1), 147–157. https://doi.org/10.2307/2938962
7.
BansakK.HainmuellerJ.HangartnerD. (2016). How economic, humanitarian, and religious concerns shape European attitudes toward asylum seekers. Science, 354(6309), 217–222. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aag2147
8.
BarberB. M.OdeanT. (2001). Boys will be boys: Gender, overconfidence, and common stock investment. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116(1), 261–292. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355301556400
9.
BeegleK.FrankenbergE.ThomasD. (2001). Bargaining power within couples and use of prenatal and delivery care in Indonesia. Studies in Family Planning, 32(2), 130–146. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4465.2001.00130.x
10.
BorjasG. J.FreemanR. B.KatzL. F. (1992). On the Labor Market Impacts of Immigration and Trade. In BorjasGerge J.FreemanRichard B. (Eds.), Immigration and the Work Force: Economic Consequences for the United States and Source Areas (pp. 213–244). University of Chicago Press.
11.
BoucherA. (2007). Skill, migration and gender in Australia and Canada: The case of gender-based analysis. Australian Journal of Political Science, 42(3), 383–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361140701513547
12.
BoydM. (2021). Women, gender, and migration trends in a global world. In MoraC.PiperN. (Eds.), The palgrave handbook of gender and migration (pp. 405–424). Springer Nature.
BurnsN.SchlozmanK. L.VerbaS. (1997). The public consequences of private inequality: Family life and citizen participation. American Political Science Review, 91(2), 373–389. https://doi.org/10.2307/2952362
15.
ByrnesJ. P.MillerD. C.SchaferW. D. (1999). Gender differences in risk taking: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 125(3), 367–383. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.125.3.367
16.
CastlesS.MillerM. J. (1993). The age of migration: International population movements in the modern world. Macmillan.
ChungE. A. (2020). Creating hierarchies of noncitizens: Race, gender, and visa categories in South Korea. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(12), 2497–2514. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1561061
19.
ChungE. A. (2022). The side doors of immigration: Multi-tier migration regimes in Japan and South Korea. Third World Quarterly, 43(7), 1570–1586. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1956893
ClarkJ. A.LeggeJ. S. (1997). Economics, racism, and attitudes toward immigration in the New Germany. Political Research Quarterly, 50(4), 901–917. https://doi.org/10.1177/106591299705000409
CoendersM.ScheepersP. (1998). Support for ethnic discrimination in the Netherlands 1979–1993: Effects of period, cohort, and individual characteristics. European Sociological Review, 14(4), 405–422. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.esr.a018247
24.
DahlgaardJ. O.HansenK. M. (2021). Twice the trouble: Twinning and the cost of voting. The Journal of Politics, 83(3), 1173–1177. https://doi.org/10.1086/711301
DreberA.von EssenE.RanehillE. (2011). Outrunning the gender gap—Boys and girls compete equally. Experimental Economics, 14(4), 567–582. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-011-9282-8
27.
EspenshadeT. J.CalhounC. A. (1993). An analysis of public opinion toward undocumented immigration. Population Research and Policy Review, 12(3), 189–224. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01074385
28.
FietkauS.HansenK. M. (2018). How perceptions of immigrants trigger feelings of economic and cultural threats in two welfare states. European Union Politics, 19(1), 119–139. https://doi.org/10.1177/1465116517734064
29.
FordR. (2011). Acceptable and unacceptable immigrants: How opposition to immigration in Britain is affected by migrants’ region of origin. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(7), 1017–1037. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2011.572423
30.
FrançoisA.Magni-BertonR. (2013). Individual gendered attitudes toward immigrants. Empirical evidence from French surveys. The Social Science Journal, 50(3), 321–330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2013.02.004
31.
FrickB. (2011). Gender differences in competitiveness: Empirical evidence from professional distance running. Labour Economics, 18(3), 389–398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2010.11.004
32.
GangI. N.Rivera-BatizF. L.YunM.-S. (2013). Economic strain, education and attitudes towards foreigners in the European Union. Review of International Economics, 21(2), 177–190. https://doi.org/10.1111/roie.12029
33.
GimpelJ. G.EdwardsJ. R. (1998). Congressional politics of immigration reform, the (1st ed.). Longman.
34.
GneezyU.LeonardK. L.ListJ. A. (2009). Gender differences in competition: Evidence from a matrilineal and a patriarchal society. Econometrica, 77(5), 1637–1664. https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA6690
35.
GoldinC. (2023). Career and family: Women’s century-long journey toward equity. Princeton University Press.
36.
GoldsteinJ. L.PetersM. E. (2014). Nativism or economic threat: Attitudes toward immigrants during the great recession. International Interactions, 40(3), 376–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050629.2014.899219
GreenD.KadoyaY. (2015). Contact and threat: Factors affecting views on increasing immigration in Japan. Politics & Policy, 43(1), 59–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12109
40.
HainmuellerJ.HiscoxM. J. (2007). Educated preferences: Explaining attitudes toward immigration in Europe. International Organization, 61(2), 399–442. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020818307070142
41.
HainmuellerJ.HiscoxM. J. (2010). Attitudes toward highly skilled and low-skilled immigration: Evidence from a survey experiment. American Political Science Review, 104(1), 61–84. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055409990372
42.
HeinP. (2012). Does ethnic origin determine integration success? A comparison of immigration policies in Germany and Japan. Asian Ethnicity, 13(2), 161–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2012.625709
43.
HelblingM.KriesiH. (2014). Why citizens prefer high- over low-skilled immigrants. Labor market competition, welfare state, and deservingness. European Sociological Review, 30(5), 595–614. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcu061
44.
HighamJ. (2002). Strangers in the land: Patterns of American nativism, 1860-1925. Rutgers University Press.
45.
HoganJ.HaltinnerK. (2015). Floods, invaders, and parasites: Immigration threat narratives and right-wing populism in the USA, UK and Australia. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 36(5), 520–543. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2015.1072907
IgarashiA.MiwaH.OnoY. (2022). Why do citizens prefer high-skilled immigrants to low-skilled immigrants? Identifying causal mechanisms of immigration preferences with a survey experiment. Research & Politics, 9(2), Article 20531680221091439. https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680221091439
InoueM.NishikitaniM.TsuruganoS. (2016). Female non-regular workers in Japan: Their current status and health. Industrial Health, 54(6), 521–527. https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.2016-0105
IversenT.RosenbluthF. (2006). The political economy of gender: Explaining cross-national variation in the gender division of labor and the gender voting gap. American Journal of Political Science, 50(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00166.x
56.
IversenT.RosenbluthF. (2008). Work and power: The connection between female labor force participation and female political representation. Annual Review of Political Science, 11(1), 479–495. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.053106.151342
57.
IversenT.RosenbluthF. M. (2010). Women, work, and politics: The political economy of gender inequality. Yale University Press.
58.
IyengarS.JackmanS.MessingS.ValentinoN.AalbergT.DuchR.HahnK. S.SorokaS.HarellA.KobayashiT. (2013). Do attitudes about immigration predict willingness to admit individual immigrants?: A cross-national test of the person-positivity bias. Public Opinion Quarterly, 77(3), 641–665. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nft024
59.
KabeerN.MahmudS. (2004). Globalization, gender and poverty: Bangladeshi women workers in export and local markets. Journal of International Development, 16(1), 93–109. https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.1065
60.
KageR.RosenbluthF. M.TanakaS. (2019). What explains low female political representation? Evidence from survey experiments in Japan. Politics and Gender, 15(2), 285–309. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X18000223
61.
KarpowitzC. F.MendelbergT.ShakerL. (2012). Gender inequality in deliberative participation. American Political Science Review, 106(3), 533–547. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055412000329
KinderD. R.KamC. D. (2010). Us against them: Ethnocentric foundations of American opinion. University of Chicago Press.
64.
KinderD. R.SearsD. O. (1981). Prejudice and politics: Symbolic racism versus racial threats to the good life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40(3), 414–431. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.40.3.414
65.
KofmanE. (2014). Towards a gendered evaluation of (highly) skilled immigration policies in Europe. International Migration, 52(3), 116–128. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12121
KonitzerT. B.IyengarS.ValentinoN. A.SorokaS.DuchR. M. (2019). Ethnocentrism versus group-specific stereotyping in immigration opinion: Cross-national evidence on the distinctiveness of immigrant groups. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(7), 1051–1074. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1431109
69.
KrugerD. J.FitzgeraldC. J.PetersonT. (2010). Female scarcity reduces women’s marital ages and increases variance in men’s marital ages. Evolutionary Psychology: An International Journal of Evolutionary Approaches to Psychology and Behavior, 8(3), 420–431. https://doi.org/10.1177/147470491000800309
LapinskiJ. S.PeltolaP.ShawG.YangA. (1997). Trends: Immigrants and immigration. Public Opinion Quarterly, 61(2), 356–383. https://doi.org/10.1086/297799
72.
LeeA. H.-Y.SambanisN. (2025). Same-sex schooling, political participation, and gender attitudes? Evidence from a natural experiment in South Korea. Journal of Experimental Political Science, 12(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1017/XPS.2025.6
73.
LeeB.ChoiJ. Y.SeoJ. (2014). Korean–Chinese migrant workers and the politics of Korean nationalism. Pacific Focus, 29(3), 395–412. https://doi.org/10.1111/pafo.12036
74.
LiuS.-J. S. (2022). Gender gaps in political participation in Asia. International Political Science Review, 43(2), 209–225. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512120935517
75.
MahonR. (2021). Gendering the global governance of migration. In MoraC.PiperN. (Eds.), The palgrave handbook of gender and migration (pp. 271–286). Springer Nature.
76.
MalhotraN.MargalitY.MoC. H. (2013). Economic explanations for opposition to immigration: Distinguishing between prevalence and conditional impact. American Journal of Political Science, 57(2), 391–410. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12012
77.
MaydaA. M. (2006). Who is against immigration? A cross-country investigation of individual attitudes toward immigrants. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 88(3), 510–530. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest.88.3.510
78.
MendelbergT.KarpowitzC. F.OliphantJ. B. (2014). Gender inequality in deliberation: Unpacking the black box of interaction. Perspectives on Politics, 12(1), 18–44. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592713003691
NiederleM.VesterlundL. (2007). Do women shy away from competition? Do men compete too much?Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(3), 1067–1101. https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.122.3.1067
83.
ÖblomA.AntfolkJ. (2017). Ethnic and gender discrimination in the private rental housing market in Finland: A field experiment. PLoS One, 12(8), Article e0183344. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183344
OlzakS. (1994). The dynamics of ethnic competition and conflict. Stanford University Press.
87.
O’RourkeK. H.SinnottR. (2006). The determinants of individual attitudes towards immigration. European Journal of Political Economy, 22(4), 838–861. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2005.10.005
88.
ParkJ. (2025). Replication data for: Gendered xenophobia? Gendered interpretation of immigration and labor market vulnerability. Harvard Dataverse. [Dataset]. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/H7VVDY
89.
ParkS. Y. (2025). Stereotyping women with sympathy: Youth political socialization in mixed-gender environments. Political Behavior. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-025-10038-2
90.
PedersenF. A. (1991). Secular trends in human sex ratios: Their influence on individual and family behavior. Human Nature, 2(3), 271–291. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02692189
91.
PengI. (2016). Testing the limits of welfare state changes: The slow-moving immigration policy reform in Japan. Social Policy and Administration, 50(2), 278–295. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12215
92.
PettigrewT. F.WagnerU.ChristO. (2007). Who opposes immigration?Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 4(1), 19–39. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742058X07070038
PoyntingS.MasonV. (2007). The resistible rise of islamophobia: Anti-muslim racism in the UK and Australia before 11 September 2001. Journal of Sociology, 43(1), 61–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783307073935
95.
QuillianL. (1995). Prejudice as a response to perceived group threat: Population composition and anti-immigrant and racial prejudice in Europe. American Sociological Review, 60(4), 586–611. https://doi.org/10.2307/2096296
96.
ReynaC.DobriaO.WetherellG. (2013). The complexity and ambivalence of immigration attitudes: Ambivalent stereotypes predict conflicting attitudes toward immigration policies. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 19(3), 342–356. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032942
RuizB.Rubio MarinR. (2008). The gender of representation: On democracy, equality, and parity. Icon-International Journal of Constitutional Law, 6, 287–316. https://doi.org/10.1093/icon/mon007
100.
ScheveK. F.SlaughterM. J. (2001). Labor market competition and individual preferences over immigration policy. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 83(1), 133–145. https://doi.org/10.1162/003465301750160108
ShaoL.DuJ.HanR.LiuD. (2023). Racial and gender stereotypes in immigration attitudes: Evidence from China. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49(9), 2391–2415. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2023.2165485
103.
ShapiroM. J. (1997). Narrating the nation, unwelcoming the stranger: Anti-immigration policy in contemporary “America”. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 22(1), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/030437549702200101
104.
ShorrocksR. (2018). Cohort change in political gender gaps in Europe and Canada: The role of modernization. Politics & Society, 46(2), 135–175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329217751688
105.
SidesJ.CitrinJ. (2007). European opinion about immigration: The role of identities, interests and information. British Journal of Political Science, 37(3), 477–504. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007123407000257
106.
SkeldonR. (2006). Recent trends in migration in East and Southeast Asia. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 15(2), 277–293. https://doi.org/10.1177/011719680601500206
107.
SnidermanP. M.HagendoornL.HagendoornA. (2007). When ways of life collide: Multiculturalism and its discontents in the Netherlands. Princeton University Press.
108.
SnidermanP. M.PeriP.de FigueiredoR. J. P.Jr.PiazzaT. (2002). The outsider: Prejudice and politics in Italy. Princeton University Press.
109.
SuzukiN. (2007). Carework and migration: Japanese perspectives on the Japan-Philippines economic partnership agreement. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 16(3), 357–381. https://doi.org/10.1177/011719680701600303
TakenobuM. (2021). Fragile structure of women’s labor hit hard by Coronavirus: The high price of “diverse working styles” in the absence of a safety net. Voices from Japan, No. 35. https://www.ajwrc.org/4472
113.
TeeleD. L.KallaJ.RosenbluthF. (2018). The ties that double bind: Social roles and women’s underrepresentation in politics. American Political Science Review, 112(3), 525–541. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055418000217
ThorntonA.AlwinD. F.CamburnD. (1983). Causes and consequences of sex-role attitudes and attitude change. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 211–227. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095106
ValentinoN. A.BraderT.JardinaA. E. (2013). Immigration opposition among U.S. whites: General ethnocentrism or media priming of attitudes about Latinos?Political Psychology, 34(2), 149–166. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2012.00928.x
118.
ValentovaM.AlievaA. (2014). Gender differences in the perception of immigration-related threats. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 39(1), 175–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2013.08.010
WilsonT. D. (2000). Anti-immigrant sentiment and the problem of reproduction/maintenance in Mexican immigration to the United States. Critique of Anthropology, 20(2), 191–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X0002000206
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
