Transatlantic Trends: Immigration 2010

In 2010, immigration dominated headlines in Europe and North America like never before. Though flows of new migrants slowed in 2008 and 2009 as a result of the economic crisis, Americans grappled with questions of governance stemming from legislation in Arizona, and asylum policy in Canada made headlines after a number of high profile incidents. In September, France’s lower house overwhelmingly passed a ban on face-covering veils everywhere that can be considered public space.

Dutch politician Geert Wilders won 15% of the vote for his Party for Freedom by running on an anti immigrant and anti-Islamic platform. In Germany, a controversial book was released in August, drawing national attention to the integration of Germany’s Muslim minority.

In order to gauge the effects of these types of political developments on public opinion, Transatlantic Trends: Immigration (TTI) targets perceptions of immigrant groups and support for immigration and integration policies in a comparative context. Now in its third year, Transatlantic Trends: Immigration continues to measure public opinion on immigration issues on both sides of the Atlantic. The countries included in the 2010 version of the survey were the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. These eight migrant receiving countries each face unique challenges when it comes to immigration and integration issues, and 2010 was the first year in which TTI yielded comparable year-on-year data in each of them.

As many of the countries included in TTI were still grappling with the aftermath of the economic crisis in 2010, a primary focus of TTI 2010 was the economy and its effects on attitudes. Transatlantic Trends: Immigration 2010 asked North Americans and Europeans several questions related to labor markets, their own economic situation, and their perception of their national economies in order to gauge whether attitudes about immigration issues have changed as a result of economic anxiety.

Another highlight of the 2010 survey is a focus on integration issues. Given the salience of the European debate in particular, the survey included questions that allowed respondents to evaluate the integration of various immigrant groups as well as the children of immigrants. These questions are the first in the history of TTI to ask specifically about second-generation integration.

Overall, Transatlantic Trends: Immigration is a comparative study of North American and European public opinion about immigration and integration issues. The focused nature of the survey allows for a close look at national immigration debates, while cross-country comparisons help to put national opinions against the backdrop of other migrant-receiving societies.

Transatlantic Trends: Immigration is a joint project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Compagnia di San Paolo, and the Barrow Cadbury Trust, with additional support from the Fundación BBVA.