Last year research from the University of Birmingham revealed that opposition to immigration had softened in the wake of both Brexit and COVID.

The authors believe this softening has two contributing factors, the first of which is that those with anti-immigrant attitudes feel they have more control over migration, and have therefore softened their stance, whilst the second is that the growth in xenophobia and racism has prompted some to pull back from their stance.

“Many people have noted the softening of attitudes since the EU Referendum, but no one could explain why attitudes changed for Remainers and Leavers,” the researchers say. “The idea that Leavers were reassured by the government ‘taking back control’ just doesn’t explain the wider trend. Our findings does. The fact that people wish to distance themselves from accusations of xenophobia and racism is not only reassuring but suggests a more general phenomenon of society seeking to protect itself. Which is just as relevant in a time of COVID, border closures, and fears of a ‘foreign’ virus as it is to Brexit.”

Partisan divide

This shouldn’t be taken to mean that the conservatives who backed Brexit are not still considerably more likely to view immigration as a threat, however, as new research from the University of Cologne illustrates.

The research aimed to explore the relationship between conservative and liberal values, and the perceived threat from immigration, and attitudes towards immigration among people.

The results reveal that those with conservative values tend to perceive immigration to be a higher threat, and therefore also have a more negative view towards immigration than those with more liberal and universalistic values.

The findings emerged from an analysis of the European Social Survey, which contained over 35,000 respondents from 19 European countries.  The findings were broadly comparable across each country, but within each country, the conservative/liberal divide was equally consistent.

In more autonomous societies, such as those in Western Europe, individual values are very important so people follow their own motivations and worldviews, whereas in more collectivistic societies, people are deeply embedded in the collective of society, therefore individual values are less important.

“The associations between values, perceived threat, and attitudes towards immigration were stronger in countries characterized by higher levels of intellectual and affective autonomy and weaker in countries characterized by higher levels of embeddedness,” the researchers conclude