Exclusionary attitudes toward immigrants: Globalization and configurations of ascribed and achieved status across 14 European countries

Abstract

Research on immigration attitudes focuses on two dimensions of exclusionary preferences: those related to achieved characteristics and those related to ascribed characteristics. First, we expand this work by unpacking how individuals blend attitudes across these two dimensions. Applying latent profile analysis to a comprehensive set of exclusionary indicators from the European Social Survey in 2002 and 2014, we observe seven attitudinal configurations: exclusionary, moderate individualistic, individualistic, tolerant, religious, illiberal liberalism, and racial capitalism. Second, using multinomial logistic regression with country fixed effects, we explore how configurations relate to a period where European countries experienced overall economic de-globalization, but more intensified cultural globalization. Consistent with integrated threat theories, we find that exclusionary views were less common in countries that became economically de-globalized. Conversely, we find no effect of cultural globalization on the growth or decline of the exclusionary configuration. We conclude by considering the policy implications of these results on current immigration policy.