The geography of anti-immigrant attitudes across Europe, 2002–2014

Abstract

ABSTRACTEurope has become a major destination for international migrants. By 2015, 34.3 million people living in an EU member state were born outside of the EU-28, and an additional 18.5 million persons had been born in another EU country than the one currently residing in. In this context of a growing foreign-born population, which is now at about 10% of the total European population, xenophobic attitudes against immigrants are generally perceived as having increased over the past decade across Europe. This study explores the extent to which anti-immigrant hostility is spatially dependent and has spread geographically across European regions of that period. Based on data from seven rounds (2002–2014) of the European Social Survey, analysed at sub-national (NUTS 2 regions) levels, we identify a significant spatial connectivity of anti-immigrant attitudes by showing that spatially more proximate European regions share similar in trends in anti-immigrant sentiments than we observe between more distant regions. The identification of a spatially dependent diffusion and clustering process of anti-immigrant attitudes has a significant bearing for the understanding of the rise and fall of populist movements across Europe and changing electoral support for xenophobic parties across European regions over time.