Anti-Foreigner Sentiment in Europe: Turnover and Temporality in International Migration Flows and the Implications for Perceived Ethnic Threat

Jack DeWaard, University of Wisconsin at Madison

Theoretical and empirical treatments of anti-foreigner sentiment view the role of international migration as operating through the visibility of migrants at destination, measured as the percent foreign-born. This study questions the sufficiency of this formulation for expressing the contribution of another characteristic feature of international migration patterns, turnover and temporality in migration flows, to natives’ perceptions of ethnic threat. The concept and measure of a country’s exposure to migration, proposed here, expresses the total time lived by a migrant in a destination country on average. I examine the intersection of both the visibility and exposure components on anti-foreigner sentiment in Europe from 2002-2003. The theoretical and empirical contributions of this project call attention to the multidimensionality international migration, with implications for the context of migrant reception and integration in Europe and elsewhere.