As migration has taken center stage in politics around the world, a noticeable trend has been the apparent divide on various social issues between the generations.  This is aptly characterized by recent research from the University of Nottingham, which reveals that young people today are significantly happier about migration than their older peers.

The research explored how feelings about migration change over time among different age groups.  Previous research has explored whether people become more tolerant of diversity when they’re more exposed to different races and nationalities, with the findings mixed, with some suggesting that indeed does occur, whilst others suggesting people feel threatened and therefore resist increases in migration.  The new research attempts to add a degree of multi-generational nuance to proceedings to see if different generations respond in a different way.  The research builds upon the hypothesis that the social and political conditions when we come of age (between 15-20) are key to forging our perspectives on the world throughout our life.

Changing views

The research drew upon a public opinion dataset that was compiled between 2002 and 2017 to allow for the attitude towards immigration of a few generations of British people to be tracked.  The aim was to detect whether attitudes changed, and whether there were persistent differences between generations.

The analysis revealed that people born between 1920 and 1960 were typically most hostile to immigration, with those born during the second world war most hostile of all.  Generations born after 1960 showed a gradual warming in attitudes towards immigration, with millennials showing considerably more warmth than their forebears.

Demographically, the UK has become considerably more diverse since the war, and so it is perhaps no surprise that generations that have grown up with this openness to immigration have been more receptive towards it.  The authors suggest that this inevitably means that younger generations have more contact with immigrants than their elders, but they also came of age during a time when both the social norms around immigration and the public debates on the topic were changing.  It was a time when there was greater resistance towards intolerance.

This can also be combined with easier and cheaper overseas travel, and the growing likelihood that friends or relatives will have worked and lived abroad can also play a part in raising empathy towards the sense of being a ‘foreigner’ in another land.  Indeed, INSEAD’s Linda Brimm so aptly describes, younger people are increasingly adopting the global cosmopolitan mindset that underpin their personality.  She believes that this mindset has three core elements to it:

• A growth mindset – this is something examined in great depth by Stanford’s Carol Dweck, and can be characterized as a belief that intelligence can be developed, and a desire to learn new things, embrace new challenges and generally persist in the face of setbacks.
• A global mindset – which is defined as the ability to see and understand the world from multiple perspectives.
• A creative mindset – the last characteristic is one that is defined by attitudes such as curiosity and a tolerance for ambiguity.

Despite the tremendous advantages such skills and attitudes bring to any team or organization, the world remains largely run by those born before 1970, where attitudes towards immigration are significantly different.  These generations make up the bulk of the population and still vote in the largest numbers.  They also retain most of the dominant positions in society, from politics to media, business to culture.

The results of the research do suggest that attitudes are changing however and a generational replacement is unfolding as those born after 1970 begin to take a more central role in society.  The authors suggest that this will result in a more positive attitude towards immigration and greater diversity across society in the coming years.

Diverse teams

Whilst this has obvious political implications with promises by Brexiters to take back control of immigration after leaving the European Union, it also has a number of implications for how organizations man their teams.

With attitudes towards immigration and overseas experiences softening, the potential for enriching the skills of young employees by pushing them out of their comfort zone via an overseas assignment is high, with various studies highlighting how doing this can significantly help to develop the kind of skills so vital in the modern workplace.

Research from Rice University, Columbia University and the University of North Carolina  highlights the potential for overseas assignments to provide a significant boost to one’s soft skills.  The study found that living abroad boosts our self of ‘self-concept clarity’, which is our understanding and acceptance of ourselves.

The researchers suggest that living in a foreign country prompts people to reflect on the norms and values, not only of themselves and of their home country, but of their host nation too.  This spell of reflection proves incredibly powerful in helping that individual understand who they are, and what values define them.

Developing a global mindset

Companies such as EF Education First have been central in helping to cultivate such a global cosmopolitan mindset in young people around the world.  The company, which was founded in 1965 and offers a range of cultural exchange and educational travel programs that aim to open the world through education. It operates in 114 countries, with the founding Hult family also operating the Hult Prize Global Accelerator, which aims to encourage social entrepreneurship in young people.

“Living and travelling abroad creates the opportunity to really understand different cultures and tap into their own potential,” Mary Wittenberg, President of EF Pro Cycling told me recently. “It creates opportunities for them that they may never had by sitting at home.”

The EF workforce is a reflection of the global mindset they seek to cultivate in the students who flow through their various programs.  At a time when so much of the world seems intent on shutting down, it’s heartening to see the antithesis of this so clearly evident, not only in data emerging from research but in the tangible stories and outcomes from organizations like EF.  It suggests that perhaps the future might not be as bleak as it can sometimes appear.