Understanding and Addressing Public Anxiety About Immigration (MPI)

This report by MPI explores the factors that can set the stage for public anxiety about immigration, and proposes a series of strategies to respond to these concerns.

Rising public anxiety about migration has recently manifested itself in a number of ways, including in the decision by UK voters to leave the European Union; growing support for far-right, anti-immigration parties across Europe; and the central role immigration has played in the 2016 U.S. presidential primary campaign season. However, anti-immigration sentiment is not reliably correlated with either large-scale increases in immigration, high unemployment, or economic downturns, as is often assumed.

So what factors are fueling public unease? This Transatlantic Council on Migration report by D.G. Papademetriou and N. Banulescu-Bogdan outlines and analyzes the factors that can set the stage for public anxiety about immigration—some of which have their roots outside of immigration policy per se, and are instead deeply embedded in the global, national, and local contexts within which migration occurs. The report offers policymakers a set of strategies to respond to these concerns.

Publication Date:
Wed 20 Jul 2016
Geography:
Main theme:
Publication type:
Commissioner:
Keywords: