How does marriage demand stimulate support for immigration in Asia?

Abstract

ABSTRACT The previous literature suggests that citizens calculate the benefits of immigrants by assessing their impact on economic prospects. This paper argues that a type of social demand–the demand for marriage–also induces support for more liberal immigration policies. We conducted a survey experiment with 3,000 adults in China, where the population faces a shortage of women in the marriage market. The respondents were assigned to four groups, namely, a control group, a group with low-skilled worker shortage cues, a group with high-skilled worker shortage cues, and a group with marriage market crisis cues. We found that the marriage crisis treatment was effective to male respondents but not to female respondents. A supplementary examination of cross-national survey data showed that a gender imbalance at birth can elicit citizens’ higher support for immigration in 13 Asian countries/regions. The results show that, other than economic considerations, citizens’ concerns about marriage market competition can also stimulate immigration support.