Inequalities, mental well-being and anti-immigration views across EU regions and countries: defusing political propaganda.

Issues of immigration and its impact on majority communities across host countries of the European Union (EU) are highly contentious. Moreover, these issues are often hijacked by European political parties across the political spectrum. To redress the immigration debate, this paper focuses on the role that inequalities have in shaping views of immigrants in EU host countries. While issues of mental well-being among immigrants have been the focus of recent research work, there is a dearth of studies on the association between views of immigration and the mental well-being of majority communities in EU host countries and regions. Within the context of a political economy perspective, this study hypothesizes an association between (poor) mental well-being and (negative) views of immigration at the individual level which is explained by (high) regional income inequalities and individual (un)employment status. In order to test this hypothesis, this work uses a combination of multilevel modelling and spatial analysis and secondary datasets, including the European Social Survey, the European Quality of Life Survey and Eurostat. The findings emerging from this paper will contribute to a better understanding of the role of regional inequalities in explaining the association between the mental well-being of EU majority communities and their views of immigration. In addition, this understanding can be used to defuse political propaganda by providing strong evidence on which to build a more constructive debate on immigration issues