European identities and immigration attitudes

Abstract A vast body of literature studies how national identities explain immigration attitudes. In Europe, however, migration policy is largely Europeanised, requiring a European perspective. This article distinguishes between civic and cultural European identities and theorises how the two identity types relate to characteristics of immigrants with respect to admission decisions. Among others, we introduce the novel hypothesis that value congruence among Europeans and immigrants matters. The analyses of observational data and conjoint experiments show that Europeans with a cultural identity hold more restrictive attitudes; civics particularly prioritise immigrants who share their own values, while culturals more strongly reject immigrants who are culturally distant (ie Afghans and Muslims). Despite these differences, the following finding stands out: The more distant immigrants are perceived, the less likely they are to be admitted by Europeans from both identity types, raising serious questions about the role of humanitarian reasons in immigration decisions.