What Actually Matters? Understanding Attitudes toward Immigration in Switzerland

Ackermann, Maya; Freitag, Markus (2015). What Actually Matters? Understanding Attitudes toward Immigration in Switzerland. Swiss political science review / Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 21(1), pp. 36-47. Wiley 10.1111/spsr.12146

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On 9 February 2014, the Swiss people accepted the popular initiative “against mass immigration” launched by the national-conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP). This voting outcome has triggered wide-ranging debates about both the policy on immigrants as well as the future of Switzerland within the European context. Against this background, we evaluate attitudes toward immigration in Switzerland. Using hitherto unexplored survey data of MOSAiCH, our empirical analyses show that already in the year 2013, before the debate about the initiative on mass immigration was in full swing, roughly 53 percent of the 1011 interviewed Swiss citizens stated that immigration should be reduced. Moreover, our estimations indicate that the threats and fears induced by immigration and the will to maintain sovereignty and autonomy are particularly relevant for attitudes toward immigration. By contrast, education and national or personal economic conditions are only weakly related to the immigration issue.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Political Science

UniBE Contributor:

Ackermann, Maya Esther, Freitag, Markus

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science

ISSN:

1424-7755

Publisher:

Wiley

Language:

English

Submitter:

Arno Raoul Rothenbühler

Date Deposited:

27 Mar 2015 14:34

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:44

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/spsr.12146

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.65335

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/65335

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