Germany’s Challenges: Immigration Barriers in Minds, Economic Concerns and Subjective Well Being

Abstract

The analysis aims to provide the hypothesis that the emerging anti-immigration movements in Germany made use of people’s concerns on the issues of immigration, trust in the political system of Germany and economic insecurity to find support. It shows on which ground anti-immigration movements in Germany reached popularity. The democratic deficit problem is a perceived problem in Germany. The European-level problem can be seen as rooted in Germany’s role in the EU. Three channels are identified which shape the attitude on migration: Dislike of immigrants, economic concerns and trusting other people. The analysis provides empirical evidence within a theoretical framework to a current topic in economics which was mainly restricted to people’s attitudes towards migration. Furthermore, the analysis provides empirical evidence for the corporatism hypothesis and channels shaping the attitude towards migration.