West European societies increasingly confront a divide between labour market “insiders” and “outsiders”. Recent work on its electoral impact primarily focus on how it structures economic preferences, and indirectly, electoral behaviour. Its electoral impact is premised on members of insider or outsider groups sharing highly similar economic preferences which then inform their party choice. Recent party system research however argues that immigration issues are highly salient and influence electoral behaviour in these societies. Consequently, even if outsiders or insiders have similar economic preferences, they may vary in voting behaviour because of differences on immigration. I therefore ask – how do attitudes towards immigration influence the impact of the insider-outsider divide on electoral behaviour? This study finds that: (a) the insider-outsider divide exercises a greater effect on the likelihood of abstention, and to a lesser extent voting for major right parties, than attitudes towards immigration, (b) attitudes towards immigration exert a greater effect on the likelihood of voting for radical right and major left parties than the insider-outsider divide, and (c) the insider-outsider divide has no effect on the probability of voting for radical left parties.
