Public opinion in the EU on immigration from outside the Community

Abstract:
This article explores the impact of symbolic and instrumental variables on European Union opinion on immigration and asylum. Using Eurobarometer surveys from 1988 to 2000, descriptive and multivariate statistics are employed to measure the impact of prejudice, ideology, attitudes towards the EU, unemployment, economic conditions, migration flows, and individual-level demographic characteristics on measures of attitudes towards immigration policy and foreigners. Although standard demographic factors are associated with the dependent variables in the manner expected, there are less compelling or inconsistent effects of individual or macro-level economic variables. The best predictors of immigration positions are attitudinal variables including political ideology, prejudice and evaluations of the EU.