Why do people have such different opinions about migration?
Public Attitudes
We conduct polling and survey experiments to understand attitudes to migration. Our research explores how and why individuals’ and countries’ attitudes differ and then uses this data to identify better ways to communicate about migration.
Highlights: This past year our work has:
- identified that there are two factors that primarily impact individuals’ attitudes to immigration: higher education leads to more positive attitudes while older age leads to more negative attitudes;
- explored the role of political trust in shaping policy preferences for asylum and refugee protection policies, finding that individuals with lower levels of trust in European political institutions are less supportive of policies providing unlimited or unconditional protection and more supportive of restrictive refugee policies;
- found that school-based educational programs about migrants can lead to students having more positive attitudes and demonstrating more generosity towards immigrants;
- utilized survey experiments to track changes in attitudes toward Ukrainian and Syrian refugees over time;
- identified the use of emotions as a tool to enhance communication about migration policy.
Upcoming Priorities: Over the next year we are working to
- conduct empirical tests on different communication strategies to identify for the first-time what changes attitudes to immigration and then add survey data to our Observatory of Public Attitudes to Migration;
- identify if people think asylum decisions are fair and if they think AI should be used in asylum decisions.
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Featured Publications
- The dark side of solidarity: ambivalences and double standards in the Ukrainian refugee crisis in Italy – Magda Bolzoni, Davide Donatiello, and Leila Giannetto
- Which individual-level factors explain public attitudes toward immigration?: A meta-analysis – Lenka Dražanová; Jerome Gonnot; Tobias Heidland, and Finja Krüge
- The reverse backlash : how the success of populist radical right parties relates to more positive immigration attitudes – James Dennison and Alexander Kustov