EU citizens’ contact with Turkish immigrants has an important impact on their support for Turkey’s EU membership

Turkey’s potential accession to the European Union has been a controversial issue in several EU states. Rachid Azrout presents findings from a study on the role that contact with Turkish immigrants plays in shaping attitudes toward Turkey’s membership of the EU.

He writes that countries with higher numbers of Turkish immigrants are generally less supportive of Turkey’s membership. However the effect that anti-immigrant sentiments have on support varies significantly depending on the importance attached to immigration by political parties. This highlights that contact with immigrants is often indirect and that opinions are strongly influenced by the stance of the media and political actors.