Parents or Peers? Generational Socialisation and Attitudes Towards Migrants Across European Societies

The integration of migrants represents still a topical issue of difficult resolution across several countries. Demographic studies have uncovered the roles played by parental socio-economic background and by birth cohort in shaping prejudicial or tolerant attitudes toward immigrants. In this study, we use data from European Social Survey data, Rounds 1-10 (2002-2020). In particular, we make use of the question ‘Is the [country] made a worse or a better place to live by people coming to live here from other countries?’ to examine the influence of parental socio-economic background on respondents' attitudes towards migrants. Moreover, we study whether this influence varies by birth cohort. Results of linear regression models including country-year fixed effects indicate that, on one side, individuals of recent decades of birth are more pro-immigrants while on the other, the gap in the parental class gradient has widened.