IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eti/dpaper/19085.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Neoliberalism and Negative Attitudes toward Immigrants

Author

Listed:
  • IGARASHI Akira
  • ONO Yoshikuni

Abstract

Existing studies emphasize that the neoliberal ideology creates anti-immigrant attitudes. They attribute this to the influence of radical right-wing parties, which combine a pro-market ideology with authoritarian social conservatism. However, this claim has not been fully tested. To understand the mechanisms behind this association, our study analyzes data drawn from a representative survey and an online survey experiment conducted in Japan. Our results demonstrate that an association between neoliberalism and anti-immigrant attitudes exists even where radical right-wing parties are absent. Furthermore, the results of our experiment, where immigrants' skill levels and country of origin are varied in the vignette, show that respondents espousing neoliberal ideology are sensitive to the skill level of immigrants in that they strongly oppose low-skilled immigrants, while welcoming high-skilled immigrants. These results suggest that the association between neoliberalism and anti-immigrant attitudes is not simply a result of the influence of radical right-wing parties but rather stems from concerns over their future welfare burden.

Suggested Citation

  • IGARASHI Akira & ONO Yoshikuni, 2019. "Neoliberalism and Negative Attitudes toward Immigrants," Discussion papers 19085, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:19085
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rieti.go.jp/jp/publications/dp/19e085.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hainmueller, Jens & Hiscox, Michael J., 2010. "Attitudes toward Highly Skilled and Low-skilled Immigration: Evidence from a Survey Experiment—Erratum," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 104(3), pages 624-624, August.
    2. Kenneth F. Scheve & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2001. "Labor Market Competition And Individual Preferences Over Immigration Policy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(1), pages 133-145, February.
    3. Hainmueller, Jens & Hiscox, Michael J., 2010. "Attitudes toward Highly Skilled and Low-skilled Immigration: Evidence from a Survey Experiment," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 104(1), pages 61-84, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giovanni Facchini & Anna Maria Mayda & Riccardo Puglisi, 2017. "Illegal immigration and media exposure: evidence on individual attitudes," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-36, December.
    2. Poutvaara, Panu & Steinhardt, Max Friedrich, 2018. "Bitterness in life and attitudes towards immigration," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 471-490.
    3. Judith L. Goldstein & Margaret E. Peters, 2014. "Nativism or Economic Threat: Attitudes Toward Immigrants During the Great Recession," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 376-401, May.
    4. Simone Schüller, 2016. "The Effects of 9/11 on Attitudes toward Immigration and the Moderating Role of Education," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(4), pages 604-632, November.
    5. Lergetporer, Philipp & Piopiunik, Marc & Simon, Lisa, 2021. "Does the education level of refugees affect natives’ attitudes?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    6. Sebastian Fietkau & Kasper M Hansen, 2018. "How perceptions of immigrants trigger feelings of economic and cultural threats in two welfare states," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(1), pages 119-139, March.
    7. Tito Boeri & Matteo Gamalerio & Massimo Morelli & Margherita Negri, 2024. "Pay-as-they-get-in: attitudes toward migrants and pension systems," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 24(1), pages 63-78.
    8. Jung In Jo, 2012. "A new wonderland of Asian migration: Does symbolic politics trump utilitarian politics?," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 43-58, March.
    9. Heinz Welsch, 2019. "Utilitarian and Ideological Determinants of Attitudes toward Immigration: Germany before and after the “Refugee Crisis”," Working Papers V-419-19, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2019.
    10. Michael R. Strain & Stan Veuger, 2022. "Economic shocks and clinging," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(3), pages 456-475, July.
    11. Moriconi, Simone & Peri, Giovanni & Turati, Riccardo, 2022. "Skill of the immigrants and vote of the natives: Immigration and nationalism in European elections 2007–2016," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    12. Cédric Gorinas & Mariola Pytliková, 2017. "The Influence of Attitudes toward Immigrants on International Migration," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 416-451, June.
    13. Dylong, Patrick & Uebelmesser, Silke, 2024. "Biased beliefs about immigration and economic concerns: Evidence from representative experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 453-482.
    14. Mauro Caselli & Andrea Fracasso & Silvio Traverso, 2020. "Globalization and electoral outcomes: Evidence from Italy," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 68-103, March.
    15. Gonnot, Jérôme, 2022. "Taxation with representation: Understanding natives’ attitudes to foreigners’ voting rights," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    16. Bolet, Diane, 2020. "Local labour market competition and radical right voting: evidence from France," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103016, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Yotam Margalit, 2019. "Economic Insecurity and the Causes of Populism, Reconsidered," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(4), pages 152-170, Fall.
    18. Dmitry Grigoryev & Anastasia Batkhina & Fons Vijver & John W. Berry, 2020. "Towards an Integration of Models of Discrimination of Immigrants: from Ultimate (Functional) to Proximate (Sociofunctional) Explanations," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 667-691, September.
    19. Hyll, Walter & Schneider, Lutz, 2017. "Income Comparisons and Attitudes towards Foreigners," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168069, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    20. Michel Beine & Anna Boucher & Brian Burgoon & Mary Crock & Justin Gest & Michael Hiscox & Patrick McGovern & Hillel Rapoport & Joep Schaper & Eiko Thielemann, 2016. "Comparing Immigration Policies: An Overview from the IMPALA Database," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(4), pages 827-863, December.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:19085. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: TANIMOTO, Toko (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rietijp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.