Could Education Foster Anti-Immigrant Attitudes? Evidence from China

Research conducted in liberal democracies finds that education makes one more pro-immigration because education promotes tolerance and makes one more competitive in the labour market. This study argues that education may have the opposite effects in countries where immigrants are few or the education systems foster intolerance. Using China as a case study, I propose that education decreases pro-immigration attitudes until college when its effect turns positive. The effect of education is negative before college because the Chinese state uses education for pro-regime indoctrination. The effect turns positive after college because politics courses carry less weight in the curricula and college students have unprecedented exposure to foreigners and foreign cultures. Using data from the Asian Barometer Surveys in 2016–2017 and 2019, I uncover the proposed U shape. However, the turning point is at the latter years of high school instead of college, 1 or 2 years later than my prediction. I attribute this discrepancy to the fact that most high school students opt for the science track and stop taking politics classes in their final years of high school.