Beyond Cultural Threat: Causal Evidence on Chileans’ Attitudes Toward Intraregional Immigrants From a Factorial-Survey Experiment

Abstract

Research on immigration attitudes rarely examines contexts in which immigrants and natives share substantial cultural proximity. Leveraging Chile's recent intraregional inflow — a context that allows us to hold cultural distance constant — this study analyzes whether labor-market, family status, fiscal, and security concerns shape public opinion in the absence of cultural threat. We embedded a factorial - survey experiment in a nationally representative poll, randomizing migrant education, family status, gender, and nationality across 120 vignettes. The design yields causal estimates of each attribute's effect on preferences about who should be admitted into Chile. Respondents strongly favor highly educated immigrants and broadly reject low-skilled ones, regardless of their own schooling level. Women are viewed more favorably than men. Colombians and Venezuelans are penalized relative to Spaniards, Peruvians, and Haitians, an aversion amplified among respondents who link immigration to crime. No systematic bias against Afro-Caribbean migration appears. These results show that — even without extreme cultural distance — natives’ attitudes toward migrants are structured by their perceived socioeconomic value for the host country and by group-specific security considerations.