Public Opinion Views on Immigrants’ Contribution to the Local Economy: the Role of TV Exposure

We investigate the nexus between TV watching and the general public opinion about the impact of immigrants on the economies of destination countries using evidence from the European Social Survey. We find, as expected, that low skilled workers and less educated respondents have a more negative view, likely due to the stronger competition threat they suffer from immigrants. Second, and more surprising, time spent watching TV gives a strong and significant contribution to the negative opinions on the role of immigrants. Over-representation of negative events involving migrants and lack of migrants voice on TV are two likely rationales consistent with our findings.