Education and Anti-Immigration Attitudes: Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Reforms across Western Europe

Abstract

Low levels of education are a powerful predictor of anti-immigration sentiment. However, there is little consensus on the interpretation of this correlation: is it causal or is it an artifact of selection bias? We address this question by exploiting six major compulsory schooling reforms in five Western European countries—Denmark, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden—that have recently experienced politically influential anti-immigration movements. On average, we find that compelling students to remain in secondary school for at least an additional year decreases anti-immigration attitudes later in life. Instrumental variable estimates demonstrate that, among such compliers, an additional year of secondary schooling substantially reduces the probability of opposing immigration, believing that immigration erodes a country’s quality of life, and feeling close to far-right anti-immigration parties. These results suggest that rising post-war educational attainment has mitigated the rise of anti-immigration movements. We discuss the mechanisms and implications for future research examining anti-immigration sentiment.

Education and adult health: Is there a causal effect?

“…The first one in 1958 raised compulsory schooling from 4 to 7 years. See Brunello et al (2016), d´Hombres and Nunziata (2016), and Cavaille and Marshall (2019). Most of them set 1944 as the first cohort affected.…”

“…However, there is some controversy on the details of the reform. While Brunello et al (2016), d´Hombres and Nunziata (2016) refer an increase of years of compulsory education from 4 to 7, Cavaille and Marshall (2019) claim that compulsory education was increased from 7 to 8 years.…”

Schooling levels and wage gains in Mexico

“…Likewise, Blanden (2013) carries out a research on mobility and returns to education in 42 countries around the world. Finally, Benavot (1989) presents a cross-national study considering education returns, gender, and economic development in 96 countries during the period 1960-1985. With respect to more recent studies of the returns to education in several countries, we point out the following papers: Oreopoulosand and Petronijevic (2013), Hout (2012) and Carneiro et al (2011) deal with the returns to education for the USA; Arild et al (2010) explore the impact of a mandatory education reform as well as pre-reform availability of schools above the mandatory level, on educational attainment and returns to education in Norway; Jensen (2010) uses a survey data for eighth-grade boys in the Dominican Republic and find that the perceived returns to secondary school are extremely low, despite high measured returns; Fan et al (2015), and Heckman and Li (2004) examine the returns to education in China; Orazem and Vodopivec (1995) analyze the returns to education, experience and gender in Slovenia; Blundell et al (2000) examine the returns to higher education in Britain; and, finally, Cavaille and Marshall (2019) analyze the returns to education in Western Europe.…”

No Nation Left Behind? Assessing the Impact of Compulsory Schooling Laws on Immigrant Assimilation

“…states in addition to information on the age groups for which the CSLs applied. Building on a large literature that uses shocks to CSLs to identify the causal effect of education on a number of outcomes, I use a regression discontinuity design that exploits quasi-experimental variation in individuals who were just young enough to be under the CSL system compared to those who were just old enough to avoid having to be under his or her state's CSL (Larreguy and Marshall;Marshall 2016;Cavaille and Marshall 2019). The key identification assumption is that potential outcomes are continuous across the threshold birth year for each state.…”

“…The regression discontinuity design allows me to compare individuals who were barely eligible to be compelled into an additional year of schooling versus those who were barely ineligible. Despite a wealth of evidence showing that this margin affects many outcomes such as voting (Milligan, Moretti, and Oreopoulos 2004), partisanship (Marshall, Forthcoming), and political attitudes (Cavaille and Marshall 2019), one might be worried that this is a weak treatment. To assuage these concerns, I also leverage a difference-in-differences design that exploits differential variation across cohorts and states in the proportion of their schooling years covered under a CSL.…”