Native Student Attitudes towards Equal Rights for Immigrants: A Study in 18 European Countries

The analyses were conducted across 18 countries participating to the ICCS survey in 2009. For the analyses we applied a three-level multilevel model controlling for individual, classroom, and country characteristics...Information on the policies on immigration in each country is captured by the migrant integration policy index (MIPEX) 2010, an indicator developed by the British Council and the Migration Policy Group...
Our findings indicate that, even though there is some variation in native student attitudes toward equal rights for immigrants both across countries and across classrooms within countries, the largest differences are to be found between students. Hence, these results suggest that the determinants of native student attitudes are mainly student-related, while classroom and country characteristics are likely to have only modest effects. Variations in the attitudes of native students towards equal rights for immigrants were found to be related to individual and classroom characteristics, but we could not establish the extent to which the variation across countries can be attributed to country characteristics. Regarding individual determinants, our findings indicated that the more students know about the wider policy climate, institutional processes and so on, the more positive their attitudes towards immigrant rights. Moreover, positive attitudes are more likely to be held by girls, by students with higher socioeconomic status, and by students with high expectations for their further education...Overall, our results confirm the assumption that having the opportunity to interact with more non-native peers could lead to have a more positive attitude among native students towards immigrants in general...
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