The cross-country measurement comparability in the immigration module of the European Social Survey 2014-15

Abstract

The 7th round of the European Social Survey (ESS) from 2014-15 includes a partial repetition of the immigration module from the first ESS wave (2002-03) with information on individual attitudes toward immigration and immigrants in both old and new immigration societies. The goal of the present study is to test whether and to what extent questions in the module are equivalent across ESS countries. We performed two types of measurement equivalence tests: exact and approximate. Whereas the exact approach requires that measurement parameters are exactly equal across groups, the approximate and newer approach suggests that it is sufficient that measurement parameters are approximately equal to allow a meaningful comparison across groups. Our findings suggest that two measurement scales, allowing immigrants into the country and realistic threat, are approximately invariant across most ESS countries.