Embedding Attitudes Toward Immigrants in Solidarity Contexts: A Cross-European Study

Abstract

This article aims to retrospectively investigate the embeddedness of attitudes toward immigrants (ATI) in cultures of solidarity seen as general orientations toward solidarity measured at a country level. We predict individual-level ATI with country-level aggregated indicators of solidarity that were observed decades earlier. The latter measure local, social, and global solidarity and are explained by a general, overall orientation toward solidarity. For computing the indicators, we combine aggregate data from the European Values Study (EVS) 1999 and 2008 and individual-level data from the spring 2015 Eurobarometer to show that the effect of country-level solidarity on individual-level ATI is strong and stable. The findings reveal that cultures of solidarity have a long-term effect and are the strongest contextual determinant for individual-level ATI. Both 1999 and 2008 data proved to be related to 2015 individual-level attitudes, having a positive effect. In particular, local solidarity positively affects attitudes toward both European Union (EU) and (to a smaller extent) non-EU immigrants. General solidarity remains the most relevant, and it should be used for boosting positive views about immigrants.