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Imagined Immigration: The Impact of Different Meanings of ‘Immigrants’ in Public Opinion and Policy Debates in Britain

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  • Scott Blinder

Abstract

type="main"> Public opinion research on immigration attitudes has largely overlooked the question of how survey respondents understand the term ‘immigrants’. This article investigates latent perceptions of immigrants, termed ‘imagined immigration’, among members of the British public. Using novel survey data, I examine who members of the British public have in mind when they think of immigrants. I find that public perceptions of immigration diverge significantly from the set of people identified as immigrants in government statistics and targeted in policy changes. In particular, public perceptions focus on asylum seekers and permanent arrivals, while mostly ignoring international students, a target of new restrictive immigration policies. I also show that variation in individuals' imagined immigration is strongly associated with individual preferences for reduced immigration, suggesting imagined immigration as a new determinant of anti-immigration policy preferences to consider in future research.

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  • Scott Blinder, 2015. "Imagined Immigration: The Impact of Different Meanings of ‘Immigrants’ in Public Opinion and Policy Debates in Britain," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 63(1), pages 80-100, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:63:y:2015:i:1:p:80-100
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1467-9248.12053
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    Cited by:

    1. Meredith Winn, 2021. "The far-right and asylum outcomes: Assessing the impact of far-right politics on asylum decisions in Europe," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(1), pages 70-93, March.
    2. Fernanda L. Lopez de Leon & Markus Bindemann, 2019. "Social Effects of the Vote of the Majority: A Field-Experiment on the Brexit-Vote," Studies in Economics 1905, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    3. Lesley J. Pruitt, 2021. "Children & Migration: Political Constructions and Contestations," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(5), pages 592-602, November.
    4. Alexis Grigorieff & Christopher Roth & Diego Ubfal, 2020. "Does Information Change Attitudes Toward Immigrants?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(3), pages 1117-1143, June.
    5. Scott Blinder & Yvonni Markaki, 2019. "Acceptable in the EU? Why some immigration restrictionists support European Union mobility," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(3), pages 468-491, September.
    6. Jan G. Voelkel & Mashail Malik & Chrystal Redekopp & Robb Willer, 2022. "Changing Americans’ Attitudes about Immigration: Using Moral Framing to Bolster Factual Arguments," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 700(1), pages 73-85, March.
    7. Matteo Gamalerio, 2018. "Not Welcome Anymore: The Effect of Electoral Incentives on the Reception of Refugees," CESifo Working Paper Series 7212, CESifo.
    8. Scott Blinder & William L. Allen, 2016. "Constructing Immigrants: Portrayals of Migrant Groups in British National Newspapers, 2010–2012," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 3-40, March.
    9. Francesca Greco & Alessandro Polli, 2021. "Security Perception and People Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(2), pages 741-758, January.
    10. Grigorieff, Alexis & Roth, Christopher & Ubfal, Diego, 2016. "Does Information Change Attitudes Towards Immigrants? Representative Evidence from Survey Experiments," IZA Discussion Papers 10419, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Bindi V Shah & Jessica Ogden, 2023. "Immigration, Race, and Nation in the UK: The Politics of Belonging on Twitter," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 28(1), pages 189-209, March.
    12. Jesús Crespo Cuaresma & Peter Huber & Anna Raggl, 2015. "Reaping the Benefits of Migration in an Ageing Europe. WWWforEurope Policy Brief No. 7," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 58161.
    13. Jimenez Mori, Raul, 2021. "Eliciting individual preferences for immigrants in the Dominican Republic. Results from two choice experiments," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    14. Palermo, Francesco & Sergi, Bruno S. & Sironi, Emiliano, 2022. "Does urbanization matter? Diverging attitudes toward migrants and Europe's decision-making," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Philipp Lutz, 2024. "Between common responsibility and national interest: When do Europeans support a common European migration policy?," European Union Politics, , vol. 25(2), pages 313-332, June.
    16. Federica Genovese, 2023. "Empathy, geography and immigration: Political framing of sea migrant arrivals in European media," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(4), pages 771-784, December.
    17. Kirill Zhirkov, 2021. "Who Are “the Immigrants”? Beliefs About Immigrant Populations and Anti‐Immigration Attitudes in the United States and Britain," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(1), pages 228-237, January.

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