• Employers are more pro-immigration than the rest ceteris paribus be-
cause profit is increasing in the supply of labor: ∂π*∕∂L > 0.
This is the main logic behind the argument that immigration would ben-
efit employers. Note, for some producers/sectors, immigration may not
increase L perhaps because migrant labor is not useful input in production.
Then, ∂π*∕∂L > 0 is irrelevant.4
Equation (7) also suggests the following:
• Employers are less pro-immigration than the rest ceteris paribus be-
cause profit is decreasing in the number of employers: ∂π*∕∂N < 0.
Thus, if immigrants increase the number of producers, employers would
oppose such an inflow into the country. In Section 4, we find some evidence
to suggest employers’ concern with this negative effect.
3 Data
ESS Round 1 was conducted during the period 2002-2003. ESS is a biennial
survey that covers more than 20 countries in Europe. The target population
of each country consists of all persons at the age of 15 or over who reside in the
country. The survey consists of core and rotating modules, and one of Round
1’s two rotating modules is dedicated to revealing individual opinions about
immigration-related issues by using almost 60 questions. This immigration
module was framed by giving each respondent the following introduction:
4 However, migrants might increase the third factor by being input for the production
of that factor. In such a case, they would indirectly benefit employers.