News
All Welcome Here? Attitudes towards Muslim Migrants in Europe
Congratulations to Dr Egle Gusciute, who along with Professor Peter Mulhau and Professor Richard Layte has a very interesting paper in International Migration. Using the 7th round of the European Social Survey and linking it to other data sources, this paper examines whether threat hypotheses can explain anti‐Muslim sentiment in Europe. The study finds that opposition to Muslims is significantly higher than opposition to migrants in general, particularly in Eastern and Central Europe. The threat hypothesis is not supported on a country level as counties with higher “stock” of Muslim population and higher number of Islamic terrorist attacks are more welcoming towards further Muslim immigration. Furthermore, the study finds that women are more opposed to Muslim immigration than men. The wider implications of these findings and alternative explanations are discussed.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/imig.12810