strong evidence that smaller employers, in particular those who employed
only themselves, were more likely to prefer immigration restriction. In Aus-
tria, employers were more pro-immigration than the rest regardless of the
number of employees. In Portugal, a bigger employer was more, rather than
less, likely to prefer immigration restriction. However, we did not find any
pattern across sectors at the Union level.30
5 Conclusion
We examined the importance of being an employer in determining individual
preferences for immigration restriction in the EU countries during the period
2002-2003. A simple economic model implies that the immigration of workers
would benefit employers in the host country. However, the same model
also indicates that employers may oppose immigration when it increases the
number of producers. This latter possibility is often ignored in the literature
on individual attitudes toward immigration.
Our results from empirical analysis do not confirm that employers were
more pro-immigration than the rest because immigration would reduce the
cost of labor. Exceptions are sanitation-related activities such as sewage and
refuse disposal and recreational, cultural and sports activities. In these sec-
tors, we find that employers were less likely to prefer immigration restriction
than the rest among those who anticipated a wage fall due to immigration.
Employers were more pro-immigration than the rest in Austria, but we do
not confirm that this is due to the wage effect of immigration.
30 The results are not included in the paper but available upon request.
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