BICEPS/SSE Riga Research Seminar: Support for “replacement migration”? Region-level demographics and attitudes towards immigration in Europe

You are kindly invited to a BICEPS/SSE Riga research seminar, which will take place on Thursday, May 16, at 17:00 at SSE Riga, room 411.

We are delighted to welcome Artjoms Ivlevs as the speaker. Artjoms Ivlevs is Professor of Economics at the Bristol Business School, University of the West of England (UWE), UK. His main research interest is labour migration (in particular, the decision to emigrate, the effects of migration on sending countries, and attitudes towards immigration). He has also worked on subjective well-being, education, ethnicity, citizenship and corruption. Most of his research focuses on the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. More about the speaker: https://sites.google.com/site/artjomsivlevs/home

Title: Support for “replacement migration”? Region-level demographics and attitudes towards immigration in Europe (co-authored with Zuzanna Brunarska)

Time: Thursday, May 16, 17:00

Venue: SSE Riga, room 411

Abstract

In most European countries, falling birth rates imply population ageing and population decline, and immigration has often been considered as one of the ways to offset these trends. To determine whether demographic decline makes Europeans adopt more positive attitudes towards immigration, we undertake a longitudinal, regional-level analysis linking individual attitudes towards immigration to local-level demographic indicators. Using data from the 2008-2019 European Social Survey (278 regions in 22 countries) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (1999-2021, 96 planning regions (RORs) in 16 federal states), we find a strong relationship between individual attitudes towards immigration and local-level demographics: people become more positive towards immigration when the birth rates and natural population change rates in their regions fall. Among other things, this finding implies that policies aiming at offsetting population ageing and decline with immigration are likely to receive public support.