CEPII, Recherche et Expertise sur l'economie mondiale
Do Anti-immigration Attitudes Discourage Immigration? Evidence from a New Instrument


Etienne Bacher
Michel Beine
Hillel Rapoport

 Highlights :
  • We instrument anti-immigration attitudes by the number of compatriots killed in terrorist attacks outside Europe.
  • European native residents' attitudes toward immigration become more negative when compatriots are killed in terrorist attacks outside of Europe.
  • Anti-immigration attitudes in Europe discourage prospective immigrants to come, and this holds for all skill levels.

 Abstract :
We investigate the effect of anti-immigration attitudes on immigration plans to Europe. We propose a new instrument for attitudes toward immigration, namely, the number of country nationals killed in terrorist attacks taking place outside of Europe. Our first-stage results confirm that such terrorist attacks increase negative attitudes to immigration in the origin country of the victims. Our second-stage results then show that this higher hostility toward migrants decreases the attractiveness of the country for prospective immigrants.


 Keywords : Immigration | Terrorism | Anti-immigration attitudes | Europe

 JEL : C1, F2, J1
CEPII Working Paper
N°2025-13, October 2025

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 Fields of expertise

Migrations
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