Social trust and support for immigrants’ social rights in Spain

Abstract

ABSTRACT Immigration is one of the most contested issues in contemporary political life because of its possible implications for state welfare provisions of receiving countries. There is a fear that rising immigration will erode public support for social policies that benefit immigrants, particularly in contexts of economic crisis. However, some believe that social trust is a determining factor that may mitigate such anti-immigrant attitudes. We test both arguments for the case of Spain through multiple regression analyses of surveys on attitudes towards immigrants, carried out by the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) from 2007 to 2017. While the results are consistent with expectations according to group threat theory, we also found that trusting individuals are more likely to support immigrants’ social rights. Moreover, social trust lessens the negative effects of the perception of threat posed by outgroups —perceived economic threat and perceived size of their population— on support for immigrants’ social rights.