The role of political orientation in shaping deservingness perceptions and immigration attitudes in Europe: A multilevel analysis




Häkkilä, Laura; Kouvo, Antti-Jussi; Oinas, Tomi; Pfeifer, Michael; Toikko, Timo

PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP)

2025

Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy

Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy

2169-9763

2169-978X

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1017/ics.2025.4

https://doi.org/10.1017/ics.2025.4

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/484957281



In this study, we focus on European immigration attitudes in the perspective of deservingness perceptions and political orientation. Our data are conducted from the European Social Survey (2016) database, which contains 21 European countries and 39,400 participants. We used the multilevel method to study the relationship between immigration attitudes and deservingness perceptions. The results demonstrate that the more negative deservingness perceptions are, the more negative immigration attitudes more likely become. Moreover, country-level political orientation moderate the relationship between immigration attitudes and deservingness perceptions. Deservingness perceptions have a greater role in explaining immigration attitudes on countries with political left-context, which gives us a new perspective to understand the public debates about immigration.


There is no external funding source.


Last updated on 2025-05-03 at 09:19