Does social embeddedness shape attitudes toward migrants? Evidence from a survey experiment in the United Kingdom

How does migrants’ social embeddedness influence non-migrants’ attitudes? Although research on intergroup relations has considered the effects of various dimensions of migrants’ lives, often measured by economic and cultural traits, social embeddedness, defined by the composition of interpersonal relationships, has received relatively less attention. We consider two types of social embeddedness and hypothesize that non-migrants will positively view migrants who are more socially embedded with non-migrants. In contrast, theory suggests that co-ethnic social embeddedness will result in a more negative view. Using a conjoint analysis in the UK, results show that non-migrant’s do indeed have more positive attitudes towards a hypothetical migrant who is socially embedded with non-migrants. However, co-ethnic social embeddedness does not result in a more negative perception.