Migrant categorizations and European public opinion: diverging attitudes towards immigrants and refugees

In recent years, European media and public discourse have been increasingly categorising newcomers using terminology like ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’. The aim of this practice is to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate newcomers in the wake of the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe. Drawing on data from an online survey in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Sweden (n = 6000) in September and October of 2017, this article investigates how the use of these categories relates to public opinion on ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’. Findings show that people hold more positive attitudes towards ‘refugees’ than towards ‘immigrants’, a process which is likely driven by media framing. Attitude discrepancies within ‘immigrant’ and ‘refugee’ categories are also investigated, as categorical fetishism causes further differentiation of attitudes within these groups. Public opinion differences within ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’ are found along three cleavages: ethnicity, the economic situation of the origin country, and region of origin. Newcomers with the same ethnicity (vs. a different ethnicity), from ‘rich’ countries (vs. ‘poor’ countries), and from European countries (vs. non-European countries) are preferred in both categories. With these findings, this article reveals important aspects of the influence of migrant categorizations on public opinion towards vulnerable groups of newcomers.