Does immigration affect preferences for redistribution? Evidence across countries

We analyze the impact of international migration on public opinion towards redistribution, using migration data at the NUTS-1 regional level from the European Labor Force Survey and individual attitudes data from the European Social Survey. Theory suggests that we should observe a negative correlation between natives’ individual skill and attitudes in favor of redistribution if migrants are unskilled relative to natives. When migrants are skilled, the correlation could be either positive, negative or zero – since in this case migration flows tend to be small. Our empirical findings are consistent with these predictions.