Population ageing is an overlooked reason for why public opinion about immigration differs across Europe. Some countries in Europe have more rapidly ageing populations than others, meaning that their societies are composed of a greater proportion older people. And this age composition has important implications for what the public, on average, thinks about immigration.

Generally, older people are more concerned about immigration than younger people. This is not because people become more against immigration as they get older, nor is this due to the fact that life experiences in older life (such as going into retirement, becoming a grandparent, or experiencing old age illnesses) make a person more concerned about immigration. Rather, the age of a person holds different substantive meanings. In addition to their placement along the lifecycle, a person’s age also indicates the year of their birth, which carries its own social significance. Birth cohorts, individuals born around the same time, can experience different socializations through a unique sequence of events and circumstances which have long-lasting impacts on their socio-political attitudes. Thanks to recent research, we know that older people are more against immigration because they belong to different socio-political generations.

This is a part of a blog post by Anne-Marie Jeannet.