Anti–Immigrant Attitudes in Europe: Formal Education as a Moderator of Material and Symbolic Predictors

This article examines how the level of formal education moderates the relationship between material and symbolic predictors and anti-immigrant attitudes at the individual level. The theoretical framework of the study is group threat theory. Material predictors are the respondents’ income and labor market status. Ethnic and civic identity, individual religiosity, generalized trust are considered as symbolic predictors. The empirical material was survey data from the last fifth wave of the European Values Study (EVS2017) in 30 countries (total final sample size N = 26873) collected between 2017 and 2022. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to construct the dependent variable and key predictors. The main method of the study was multilevel regression modeling followed by moderation analysis. Based on regional differences in attitudes towards immigrants, the sample is divided into two groups: Eastern and Western Europe. Interactions of respondents’ formal education with civic identity and income variables for both subsamples, and with individual religiosity and generalized trust variables for Eastern Europe showed statistical significance. Higher education is associated with more positive attitudes toward immigrants in Eastern and Western Europe, regardless of respondents’ income, suggesting support for the liberalizing effect of higher education across varying socioeconomic status. Regional differences in the moderations of civic identity and individual religiosity require further clarification. In Eastern Europe, education reinforces the effect of generalized trust on anti-immigrant attitudes. No such relationship was found in Western Europe.