Public Attitudes toward Immigration in the United States, France, and Germany

Public Attitudes Toward Immigration in the United States, France, and Germany explores the causes of public opposition to immigration and support for anti-immigrant political movements in the three industrialized Western countries. Combining sophisticated modeling of recent public-opinion data with analysis of the past 110 years of these nations' immigration history, the book evaluates the effects of cultural marginality, economic self-interest, and contact with immigrants. Though analysis partly confirms each of these three explanations, the author concludes that being a cultural outsider usually drives immigration-related attitudes more than economics or contact do.

Table of Contents:
1. Marginality, economic self-interest, and contact; Part I. Historical Analysis: 2. History of attitudes toward immigration in the United States; 3. History of attitudes toward immigration in France; 4. History of attitudes toward immigration in Germany; Part II. Quantitative Analysis: 5. Over-time opposition to immigration and support for nativist political movements; 6. Recent attitudes toward immigration in the United States; 7. Recent attitudes toward immigration in France; 8. Recent attitudes toward immigration in Germany; 9. Culture, nationality, and the future of nativism.

Review :
"Immigration serves as a lightning rod for populist politics in many liberal democracies and nativism has been rising in Europe and the United States. Yet there is a vast gap in our knowledge of public attitudes toward immigration. By carefully weighing economic and cultural explanations for anti-immigrant attitudes and behavior, Joel Fetzer's book goes a long way towards filling this gap. Anyone who wants to understand the politics of immigration should read this book." Professor James F. Hollifield, Southern Methodist University "This ambitious book comprises a systematic, comparative analysis of public opinion about immigrants and immigration in the United States, France, and Germany during the past 120 years... this is the most comprehensive book to date on public attitudes towards immigrants..." Thomas J. Espenshade, Journal of American Ethnic History "This book is a very concise and insightful comparison of anti-immigrant and nativist feelings in the three countries. Starting from theories of racial relations and of nativism (the French "preference nationale"), he first conducts an historical analysis of immigration flows, nativists feelings and economy since the 1880s in the three countries. Then owing to a quantitative analysis referring to several opinion polls and field researches, he analyses the root causes of anti-immigrant feelings in the 1980s in the three countries among several criteria: poverty, cultural marginality and? perception of cultural threat, belonging to manual or high employment, contacts with immigrants; there is convergence of variables but their weight differ in the three countries according to the cultural context in which they take place, including memory, education and religion." Catherine de Wenden, CNRS (CERI) Paris "Joel Fetzer is to be congratulated for a serious attempt to bring a public opinion approach to comparative immigration politics. His book represents an ambitious step toward bridging the gap between policy input and output in the immigration equation of advanced industrialized democracies... the book serves as an important prelude and invites more in-depth studies of attitudes. It will be widely cited." Gallya Lahav, International Relations "This book is a very concise and insightful comparison of anti-immigrant and nativist feelings in the three countries. Starting from theories of racial relations and of nativism (the French "preference nationale"), he first conducts an historical analysis of immigration flows, nativists feelings and economy since the 1880s in the three countries. Then owing to a quantitative analysis referring to several opinion polls and field researches, he analyses the root causes of anti-immigrant feelings in the 1980s in the three countries among several criteria: poverty, cultural marginality and? perception of cultural threat, belonging to manual or high employment, contacts with immigrants; there is convergence of variables but their weight differ in the three countries according to the cultural context in which they take place, including memory, education and religion." Catherine de Wenden, CNRS (CERI) Paris "Anti-immigrant attitudes are made of the same basic fabric in the United States, in France and in Germany, in spite of their large differences in culture, history and immigration patterns. The decisive factor is resentment against cultural outsiders. Such is the main conclusion of Joel D.Fetzer's study, based on an impressive collection of comparative survey data, and time-series going back to the end of the XIXth century. Even the most set against multivariate analysis will be convinced by the closeness and the accuracy of his demonstration. A well timed book, when immigration is becoming a prominent issue in all Western democracies." Nonna Mayer, CEVIPOF (Centre for Studies of French Political Life), Paris "This concise, clearly written, well-documented study, fortified by numerous charts and a useful glossary and laced with good sense and erudition, should reach an audience beyond the scholarly world." Choice March 2001