Preferences for Immigrants: An Empirical Analysis of Explanatory Variables

This paper investigates what factors influence the preferences for migrants. Lately, European countries are obliged to accept migrants due to EU policy, making this a relevant topic to examine. The study is focused on the Netherlands and analyzes data over a time span of 12 years. The analyses show that a higher level of education, a higher satisfaction about the state of the economy and belonging to a minority lead to higher preferences for migrants. Moreover, preferences for right-wing political parties negatively influence the attitude. Contrary to previous literature, we do not observe a significant effect of income on the preferences for migrants.