Outsiders not Worth Trusting? Accounting for Concerns over Immigration in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

This study uses European Values Study 2017 data to identify key correlates of economic and cultural concerns over immigration in Central and Eastern Europe against the backdrop of the 2015 refugee crisis. It does so by running fixed-effects regression models covering 10 CEE countries and testing the associations between core cultural identities and basic values on the one hand and concerns over immigration on the other. It was found that low trust in people of another nationality and – to a lesser degree – low generalised social trust were associated with both economic and cultural concerns over immigration in CEE. Also, CEE residents subscribing to both voluntarist and ascriptive nationhood criteria were more likely to be concerned about economic and cultural aspects of immigration than those having a purely voluntarist conception of nationhood. It was also found that the association between national pride and economic concerns over immigration is stronger in Visegrád countries. Meanwhile, the study did not generate evidence that immigration attitudes in CEE were related to the strength of national identification, religious affiliation, cosmopolitan identity, Universalism or perceived state vulnerability. The article maintains that immigration attitudes in CEE are deeply embedded in societal value systems that are, in turn, shaped by distinctive historical legacies.

Keywords

• immigration attitudes
• central and eastern europe
• national identity
• social trust