A study investigates the economic bases towards immigration
In this study we investigate
the relation between job market and xenophobia.
We're doing it in two ways:
on one hand, we study the impact of recession,
macroeconomic conditions
and, on the other hand, the features of the jobs.
In particular, their degree of exposure to labour competition.
At the macro-level, we have two main conclusions:
first, the intensity of recession has significant influence
over the increase of attitudes contrary to immigration in Europe.
Second, those countries that experienced
a high growth of their immigration rate before the crisis
they are also the ones in which xenophobic attitudes
have specially increased.
The main conclusion of this study at the micro-level
is that the degree of exposure to labour competition
has significant influence over attitudes facing immigration.
How do we measure the degree of exposure?
Through three dimensions of occupation
which we know that are related to competition.
These three features are:
on one hand, how easy it is for the employer
to measure the worker's productivity.
On the other hand, to what extent the worker
has to carry out tasks with high communication contents
or, on the contrary, with much contents of manual skills.
Finally, the degree of training that the position requires.
If the level of required training is higher,
if there are more communnication contents
and if it's harder to measure productivity,
the worker will be more protected from competition with other workers.
Our study proves that these three dimensions
are associated with attitudes towards immigration.
In collaboration with:
Vice-Rectorate of communication and culture.