Unemployment and attitudes to immigrants in Europe: A comparison of early and late countries of immigration

Rational economic self-interest predicts that a period of unemployment is likely to increase negative attitudes towards immigrants. Our findings indicate that, in the five countries examined, a period of unemployment does not necessarily lead to more negative attitudes to immigrants. Crucially, the statistical differences in the mean attitudinal scores of the unemployed and those continuously employed disappears when political values are considered. Trust in politicians, political parties and national parliament is a stronger predictor of attitudes to immigrants than a period of unemployment. Additionally, there was no evidence that attitudes among the unemployed towards immigrants differed between countries with a long tradition of immigration and those experiencing immigration more recently such as Ireland and Spain.