Religion, Ethnic Identity, and Attitudes Towards Immigration: Investigating Intragroup and Intergroup Preferences Among Immigrants in Europe

This paper examines how religious and ethnic identities shape immigrants' preferences for immigration policies, focusing on differences in attitudes towards co-ethnic and co-religious groups across immigrant communities in Europe. Despite the growing political participation of immigrants and their descendants, relatively little is known about the diversity of their preferences and how their political stances intersect with broader processes of inclusion and exclusion. By analyzing data from the European Social Survey, this study investigates to what extent immigrants express solidarity with and show a preference for immigrants of their in-group over other immigrants, depending on their social positioning and experiences of discrimination. This study aims to make a contribution to the expanding literature on immigrants' and minorities' own attitudes towards immigration and how these are shaped by their relative social position.