Attitudes Toward Migration and Associational Activity: Evidence From Germany

Abstract

We explore how associational activity—a key aspect of social capital—affects migration attitudes. It is argued that people’s membership in sports clubs and associations likely leads to more negative views on migration. Exploiting the panel structure of the German Longitudinal Election Data, the empirical analysis provides support for our expectations. We also show that individuals’ political orientation moderates the postulated effect. The findings further our understanding of how public opinion on migration is formed and we add to the literature on social capital by highlighting the potentially negative consequences one of its components can have.