The transmission of preferences on immigration from the first to the second generation of immigrants: an analysis of the European Social Survey

This article studies the immigrants’ attitude towards immigration with special emphasis on the transition from the first to the second generations. We use European Social Survey data for the 2002-2020 period, which include many questions on the attitude to immigration, in order to estimate the impact of the immigrant status through ordered probit models. We find that first-generation immigrants support immigration more than natives. We also find that evidence of generational convergence towards natives’ opinions is limited. This result suggests that the effect of the immigration experience on preferences is persistent across generations.