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Explaining Individual Attitudes towards Foreigners in Switzerland

Titre du projet
Explaining Individual Attitudes towards Foreigners in Switzerland
Description
In the past three decades, immigration has become one of the most prominent topics in election campaigns in Switzerland, systematically politicized by parties on the right. As elsewhere in Europe, there appears to be growing support for anti-immigrant policies and organizations associated with anti-immigrant sentiments. Despite a growing literature on the attitudes of the mainstream society towards foreigners and immigrants, there is very little research on Switzerland. Considering that more than a fifth of the population are foreign citizens in Switzerland, and given the electoral success of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP/UDC), this is surprising. The project is concentrated on a single research question: Which contextual and individual level factors are associated with attitudes towards foreign citizens in Switzerland? The most common and perhaps most basic explanation for attitudes towards foreigners revolves around the idea of competition over economic resources and political power. Following this approach, negative attitudes towards foreigners and immigrants are seen as a direct reaction against unwanted competition. Both economists and political scientists have refined the argument, and formulated alternative explanations, such as the role of prejudice, ideology, or cultural values (see Ceobanu and Excandell 2010 for a recent review). The proposed research will apply the various theories developed in the literature to longitudinal data. The use of longitudinal data is important for two reasons. First, many of the explanations in the literature make implicit claims about changes in time. Second, it allows controlling for unobservable individual characteristics when studying the determinants of attitudes. The proposed research will apply existing research on attitudes towards foreigners to Switzerland. Recent developments in the literature will be applied in a systematic manner. Moreover, using a rigorous and systematic approach, the project will contribute to the wider literature in a number of ways. For example, the project is innovative by using individual-level panel data from the Swiss Household Panel (SHP). This will provide new insights on how attitudes towards foreigners and immigrants change over time within individuals, filling a gap in the existing literature, where repeated cross-sectional data are used, if changes over time are considered at all. By combining insights from economic and political sciences, the project will offer new insights into the dynamics of attitudes towards foreigners by paying close attention to different explanatory theories. Innovative is that we consider the link between education and attitudes in a systematic and rigorous manner. Existing research tended to ignore the endogeneity problem when estimating attitudinal effects of the welfare mechanism. Innovative is further that we add considerations of the system and institutions. Ceobanu and Excandell (2010) highlighted the lack of such considerations in existing studies as one of the most significant gap in the literature.
Chercheur principal
Statut
Completed
Date de début
1 Novembre 2011
Date de fin
30 Juin 2013
Organisations
Identifiant interne
15012
identifiant
https://libra.unine.ch/handle/123456789/1439
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The Share of Foreigners in One’s Occupation and Attitudes Towards Foreigners

2017, Pecoraro, Marco, Ruedin, Didier

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Occupational Exposure to Foreigners and Attitudes towards Equal Opportunities

2019-3-19, Pecoraro, Marco, Ruedin, Didier

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A Foreigner Who Doesn’t Steal My Job: The Role of Unemployment Risk and Values in Attitudes towards Equal Opportunities

2016, Pecoraro, Marco, Ruedin, Didier

Immigration has become systematically politicized and opposed by many individuals. We examine individual attitudes towards equal opportunities for foreigners and Swiss citizens, using cross-sectional data from the Swiss Household Panel. Individuals with low levels of education tend to oppose foreigners, while the opposition by individuals with high levels of education increases with the risk of unemployment. Values and beliefs explain the negative attitudes of individuals with low levels of education, but not the association with the risk of unemployment for individuals with high levels of education. Clearly, both values and economic factors are important for explaining attitudes towards foreigners.

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A Foreigner Who Doesn’t Steal My Job: The Role of Unemployment Risk and Values in Attitudes towards Foreigners

2013, Pecoraro, Marco, Ruedin, Didier

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