Political Trust and Attitudes Towards Immigration: Analysing Data from Countries Across Europe

In the literature, trust in national parliament is a crucial component of political confidence in the political system. However, its relation to attitudes towards immigration has not been adequately researched. Moreover, during a pandemic, such as the Covid-19, trust is thought of having an ambiguous effect on its outcomes. In this respect, the purpose of this study is to investigate the correlations of political trust in the country’s parliament and opinions towards immigration. The analysis was based on the 2020 (Round 10) European Social Survey (ESS) datasets for 25 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. We have chosen to analyze, three variables assessing the impact of immigration in each country, first the impact of immigration on the economy, second the impact of immigration on the country’s cultural life and the last one the impact of immigration on life in general, all those in relation to the measure of trust in the national parliament, which is one of the most basic political institutions in modern democratic regimes. The findings showed that respondents having no trust at all in their national parliament believe that immigration is bad for the country’s economy in the cases of Sweden, Czechia, Slovakia, Greece, Germany, Lithuania, Cyprus, and Finland whereas Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland are more tolerant; also respondents having no trust al all in the country’s parliament believe that the country’s cultural life is undermined by immigrants in the cases of Czechia, Slovakia, Greece, Cyprus, Sweden, Germany, Austria, and France and Italy whereas they are more tolerant in Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Sweden; and respondents having no trust al all in the country’s parliament believe that immigrants make the country a worse place to live in Czechia, Sweden, Slovakia, Germany, Austria, Cyprus, Greece and Finland whereas they are more tolerant in Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Moreover, the findings showed that in almost all cases the correlation coefficients of the three opinions towards immigration and political trust were significant and positive.