Emotional Reactions to and Support for Immigrant Policies: Attributed Responsibilities to Categories of Asylum Seekers

Dutch participants were asked about their support for immigrant policies aimed at public assistance, opportunities, and rights for asylum seekers. In two studies, the degree of support was examined as a consequence of feelings of anger and sympathy toward asylum seekers. In the first study, both emotions were independently related to support for immigrant policies. Anger had a strong negative effect and sympathy a positive one. In the second experimental study, the effects of these emotional responses on support for immigrant policies were examined for two categories of asylum seekers: political refugees who have little choice but to migrate and so called economic refugees who themselves chose to migrate. These two categories feature in public debates and differ in the perceived responsibility of asylum seekers for leaving their home country. It was found that for political refugees only feelings of sympathy affected policy support, whereas for economic refugees only feelings of anger predicted policy support. In both studies, national identification was negatively related to support for immigrant policies and it did not moderate the effects of anger and sympathy. There was some evidence that anger mediated the relationship between national identification and policy support.