Testing political solidarity: The effect of discrimination information on groups’ immigration attitudes

Abstract

As Western democracies become increasingly diverse, political influence often depends on effective alliances and solidarity that cut across group boundaries. While the intergroup solidarity literature points to shared grievances as a central driver, it remains unclear exactly what kind of grievance information promotes political solidarity between which groups. To test this, we conducted a survey experiment in the United Kingdom among respondents from three distinct groups: migrants from Eastern Europe, migrants from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and natives. The treatments vary based on which immigrant group is described as experiencing discrimination, making potentially shared group grievances salient. We find that discrimination information increases support for prospective MENA immigrants among migrants from Eastern Europe, but not vice versa, and we find no effects among UK natives. Moreover, discrimination information is more effective among migrants without British citizenship. Importantly, discrimination information may not uniformly foster political solidarity or interest alignment across all population groups.