The Determinants of Immigration-Policy Preferences in Advanced Economies: A Cross-Country Study

This paper employs survey data to examine the determinants of immigration-policy preferences among ten advanced economies. Ordered probit specifications suggest that skill level is a robust determinant of immigration-policy preferences and that less-skilled workers are more likely to express a preference for policies that restrict immigration. The results also suggest that older individuals, members of trade unions, and those who classify their political ideology as conservative are more likely to favor limiting immigration while non-citizens are less likely to favor such policies. Individual country-level regression results vary, in particular with regard to the influence of trade union member- ship, which is a robust determinant of immigration-policy preferences for both measures of skill in only a subset of nations. (JEL FO, F2, HO