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

The integration of migrants represents still a topical issue of difficult\r\nresolution across several countries. Demographic studies have uncovered the\r\nroles played by parental socio-economic background and by birth cohort in shaping\r\nprejudicial or tolerant attitudes toward immigrants. In this study, we use data\r\nfrom European Social Survey data, Rounds 1-10 (2002-2020). In particular, we\r\nmake use of the question ‘Is the [country] made a worse or a better place to live\r\nby people coming to live here from other countries?’ to examine the influence\r\nof parental socio-economic background on respondents' attitudes towards migrants.\r\nMoreover, we study whether this influence varies by birth cohort. Results\r\nof linear regression models including country-year fixed effects indicate that, on\r\none side, individuals of recent decades of birth are more pro-immigrants while\r\non the other, the gap in the parental class gradient has widened.