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Hungary is also excluded but for a different reason: the item for family reunification was erroneously not included in its questionnaire. Clearly, the pattern of regional differences preferences regarding asylum policies bears some similarity with the pattern for threat perceptions see the previous sections , but also shows some marked differences such as the position of Belgium and the Netherlands.

However, as these items measure one joint concept of attitudes towards asylum policy, we examine the index combining the two items on asylum policy preferences across countries and over time. A number of relevant findings can be derived from the means displayed in Figure 1. First, public opinion towards asylum policies is in most countries neither extremely negative nor extremely positive, as most average scores are relatively close to the midpoint of the scale.

In most means are below instead of above the middle of the scale, which shows that in most countries there is a moderately positive rather than a moderately negative climate. Second, there is considerable cross- national variation in public preferences for asylum policies, as means range from 2. In , Spain, Portugal and the Nordic countries are most supportive of generous policies. On average, citizens from Belgium, The Netherlands, Estonia and Czech Republic are most restrictive in their policy preferences.

When comparing the mean scores displayed in Figure 1. This also provides support for the thesis of the previous section that sentiments towards immigrants or asylum seekers are not necessarily the most negative in countries that knew a steeper increase in the number of asylum applications. The third — and perhaps the most notable — finding is that, compared to , attitudes towards asylum seekers have generally become more positive across Europe.

Between and , support for generous policies grew significantly stronger in 12 of the 17 countries with available data for both time points. Only in Poland, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic have attitudes become significantly more negative over time. Interestingly, two of these countries — Poland and Czech Republic — figure among the countries that have the lowest number of asylum applications in Europe see Table 1.

Given the non-European background of current flows of asylum-seekers, this pattern is quite surprising and in contradiction with the logic of group conflict theory. A possible explanation could be the prominence of humanitarian frames at the beginning of the current refugee reception crisis, with a strong emphasis on the needs and benefits of refugees and asylum seekers instead of on their societal costs Ritter and Rhomberg ; Tartakovsky and Walsh This finding confirms once more that political reactions and dominant frames might be of greater importance in shaping public preferences than the numbers of newcomers per se.

Hereby we focus on three explanatory frameworks. First, the effect of the social structure is considered, as previous research has shown that attitudes towards asylum seekers and immigrants are socially stratified Steele and Abdelaaty ; Coenders et al. Second, we investigate the effects of four frames that are recurrent in the media and in political debates Ritter and Rhomberg ; De Cleen et al.

Third and last, this section seeks to explain how policy preferences are shaped by the policy, migratory and economic context in the country. This explanatory account of attitudes towards asylum policy focuses on the data from , as we wish to explain policy preferences in the context of the current situation. Individual determinants To begin with, we anticipate finding that attitudes towards asylum policy differ along social-structural lines. As posited by GCT, negative attitudes towards newcomers are rooted in perceived intergroup competition.

These tests show that, except for France, the means of all countries are significantly different between both time points.

Especially low-status groups are vulnerable for ethnic competition over scarce resources, as they generally access similar job or housing markets as migrants and have less resources to protect them from competition Meuleman et al. Higher competition leads to processes of contra-identification and potentially, as a defence mechanism, to higher support for the limited admission of migrants or asylum seekers Ivarsflaten ; Scheepers et al. As a result, we hypothesize that individuals with a lower socio-economic status have more restrictive attitudes.

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To test this, we examine how occupational status, educational level and subjective income relate to policy preferences. Occupation is divided in six classes on the basis of the Erikson-Goldthorpe-Portocarero scheme Ganzeboom and Treiman : the service class, white collar workers, blue collar workers, the self-employed, the unemployed, and the retired and other non-actives.

Educational attainment is divided into three categories: lower secondary education, higher secondary education and tertiary education. Apart from the social structure, four frames or discourses, which have been recurrent in the media and in political debates, are crucial to consider. First, a humanitarian framework, which initially prevailed and emphasizes the moral duty of admitting asylum seekers, has been prevalent Tartakovsky and Walsh ; Ritter and Rhomberg This humanitarianism portrays refugees as the victims of violent conflict, focuses on their rights and stresses the moral responsibility of including them into host societies De Cleen et al.

The adoption of this inclusive, solidary and welcoming discourse is expected to stimulate support for generous asylum policies.

This value coincides with humanitarianism through its focus on the protection of the weak and its preoccupation with the situation of disadvantaged groups Davidov et al. In the ESS, universalism is measured by three items six-point scale asking to what extent respondents identify with portraits of individuals who think it is important to listen to different people, who believe that everyone should be treated equally and who care about nature and the environment.

Items are reversed so that higher values indicate a higher identification with this value. Previous research confirms that all items load strongly on the latent concept of universalism Davidov et al. Other frames, however, are not so receptive to the admittance and integration of asylum seekers and refugees. Instead of focusing on the benefits and positive consequences of allowing asylum seekers entry, other discourses highlight the threats they pose to the economy, cultural life and internal security.

As a second frame, we examine the impact of a negative economic discourse, which portrays asylum seekers as damaging to the national economy. The inflow of asylum seekers is considered to be too costly and to be at the expense of the welfare of the native population Greussing and Boomgaarden Individuals who adopt this type of motivation are anticipated to prefer more restrictive asylum policies to protect their own as well as the general well-being Ivarsflaten To operationalize the economic frame, we use perceptions of economic threat.

Economic threat is measured by the same item as in the first theoretical section and is also reversed so that higher values indicate stronger fear for the economic consequences of immigration. The third frame operates independently of material concerns but concentrates instead on how the inflow of newcomers affects the culture of the host country and the national identity. This cultural discourse portrays asylum seekers and refugees as damaging to the national culture and the existing traditions. Although this line of thought is far from new, it is increasingly incorporated into current political debates and tailored the situation of a large inflow of migrants from outside the European Union.

We expect that individuals who adopt this cultural frame are more supportive of restrictive policies, as curbing immigration should enable the preservation of dominant norms and values Ivarsflaten To measure the cultural frame, we use the item on perceptions of cultural threat that was also analyzed in the section of the evolution of threat perceptions. High values indicate stronger cultural threat perceptions. The fourth and last frame, the securitarian frame, treats the inflow of refugees as a problem of national security.

Refugees and asylum seekers are conceived of as being dangerous to public safety, as they are blamed of committing crimes and of having immoral intentions. Especially Muslim men are feared and blamed, as they are considered to be particularly threatening to the safety of women and children. Moreover, the securitarian logic characterizes asylum seekers as an uncontrollable, immoral and barbaric mass of people wanting to enter the European continent Greussing and Boomgaarden Adopting this perspective is expected to foster support for restrictive policies, as this frame is closely linked to the introduction of higher surveillance, more border controls and stricter immigration legislations to manage the risk that refugees pose to internal security Holzberg et al.

To operationalize this frame, we study feelings of unsafety, as the existence of a relationship with asylum policy preferences would illustrate that perceptions of unsafety are partly attributable to fear of violence and criminal activities from refugees or asylum seekers Rustenbach Feelings of unsafety were measured by a single item that probes whether individuals feel safe in their neighbourhood. To begin with, we focus on the policy context, as the asylum policy that is being pursued in a given country could influence public support.

Policies institutionalize and shape norms on the preferred roles of refugees in the host society and on the ways they should be treated, which may in turn be internalized by the public Koster and Kaminska ; Schlueter et al. Open policies could thus lead to less hostile attitudes, as they put forward welcoming norms in the reception of asylum seekers. However, more generous policies could also lead to the settlement of a larger number of refugees, which could heighten threat perceptions among majority group members according to group conflict theory.

Previous studies suggest that welcoming or tolerant immigration policies have been shown to lower instead of heighten threat perceptions and that the norm-shaping function is most plausible Green et al. We operationalize the generosity of asylum policies by means of the approval rate of asylum applications in a given country. When this approval rate is higher, it points to a generous treatment of asylum applications by government officials, which could influence public opinion at large Esses et al.

On the basis of Eurostat data of , we calculate the approval rate by dividing the number of positive decisions on asylum applications by the total number of taken decisions. We focus on two important dimensions that could be relevant for public attitudes towards asylum policies. As a first aspect, we assess whether the number of asylum seekers in a given country can explain cross-national variation in preferences for particular policies.

According to group conflict theory, a larger size of the out-group and a larger inflow of asylum seekers strengthens ethnic competition but also heightens the salience of the topic of immigration. These contexts can in turn foster support for policies that limit the numbers of asylum seekers entering the country Fasani ; Zaun The size of the out-group is operationalized as the number of asylum applicants per inhabitants in This higher deservingness is expected to be reflected in a more open attitude and an increased willingness to receive asylum seekers and refugees in the country.

These three countries are chosen because they constitute the primary countries of origins of asylum seekers in In line with GCT, countries that experience an economic downfall or recession are thought to be characterised by a more restrictive opinion climate, as these circumstances heighten competition over scarce economic resources Semyonov et al.

Moreover, worries about the costs of accommodating and integrating refugees into the host country might become more pronounced during times of economic hardship. To study the impact of the economic situation in a country, unemployment rates are examined. Higher unemployment rates have been shown to lead to more negative immigration attitudes, as they bring about heightened competition over scarcely available jobs Meuleman et al.

As a result, we hypothesize that higher unemployment rates will lead to preferences for more restrictive asylum policies. Unemployment rates are operationalized by taking the average unemployment rate over the years to from the database of the Wold Bank. Multilevel analysis To determine how these individual- and country-level characteristics influence attitudes towards asylum policy, we conduct a multilevel analysis on the basis of the data from the European Social Survey round 8 The dependent variable in this analysis is the index measuring support for restrictive asylum policies that was also shown in the descriptive overview.

This allows to take into account the clustered nature of the data and to model within- and between-level effects simultaneously. As We adopt a stepwise approach to determine whether the social structural effects remain substantial after including the four frames into the multilevel model. Table 1. Only the dummy variables are not standardized, so that these effect refer to the number of standard deviations a particular category differs from the reference group.

Note that apart from the discussed variables, several control variables are also included in the multilevel models: age, gender, religiosity How religious would you say you are; , area of residence What would describe best the area where you live? A possible explanation could be the higher competition over scarce resources these social categories experience from asylum seekers and refugees, which results in processes of contra-identification and in preferences for restrictive policies Scheepers et al.

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In addition, right-wing individuals are more restrictive in their preferences. This is connected to the higher problematization of immigration and the higher hostility towards out-groups inherent to right-wing ideology Semyonov et al. Moreover, the effects of the other control variables illustrate that men, older respondents, less religious individuals and respondents from urbanized regions are more supportive of restrictive policies.

However, when indicators of the four frames are introduced in Model 2, many of the coefficients of the structural variables become smaller or insignificant. Some of the occupation and subjective income categories, for instance, do not differ significantly anymore after introducing the four moral frames. This illustrates that differences between groups are partly relatable to their differing usage or adoption of the four discourses.

From the second model we learn that the four frames are all related in the expected manner to attitudes towards asylum policy. First, universalism has a significant negative effect on preferences for a restrictive policy, which shows that individuals who believe that everyone should be treated equally are more prone to welcome asylum seekers into the country. The adoption of the humanitarian frame -that emphasizes the importance of respecting human rights and by portrays refugees as the primary victims in the current reception crisis- thus proves to be an effective buffer against negative attitudes towards asylum seekers De Cleen et al.

Second, economic threat perceptions that is, the indicator for adoption of the economic frame encourage support for restrictive policies. Clearly, individuals who portray asylum seekers as threatening to the welfare of the host country and who perceive them as economically burdensome prefer to restrict their admittance Greussing and Boomgaarden Third, the frame of cultural threat fosters support for restrictive policies as well.

The belief that migrants threaten the cultural life and that the values of mainly Muslim refugees are incompatible with the Western liberal core values thus increases support for measures that enable the protection of the dominant way of life De Cleen et al. Last, also feelings of unsafety shape attitudes towards asylum policy. Consequently, the utilization of a securitarian frame, which sees asylum seekers as detrimental to national security and to the safety of children and women, increases support for curbing their inflow De Cleen et al.

Although all of the four frames have a substantial impact in determining attitudes towards asylum policy, they are not all equally important. The effect of cultural threat is the largest, followed by the one of economic threat, which illustrates that cultural and economic frames are the most effective in shaping attitudes. The effect is negative, which indicates that higher unemployment rates go hand in hand with a more welcoming opinion climate.

On the basis of group conflict theory, we would expect the opposite pattern, namely that higher unemployment leads to more competition over scarce material resources and to more restrictive policy preferences Meuleman et al.