Abstract
Applied to immigration, Blalock’s (Toward a Theory of Minority‐Group Relations. A Capricorn Giant , 1967) salience hypothesis predicts that contact with immigrants will tend to highlight the role of nationality in the identities of natives and thereby increase opposition to immigration. Drawing on group threat and cultural perspectives hypotheses, we consider the roles of macroeconomic conditions and national culture in salience effects. Our results indicate that economic concerns over immigration are more sensitive to the immigrant population share during difficult economic times and in countries with less religious diversity and more collectivist cultures. In contrast, cultural concerns over immigration are not sensitive to the macroeconomic and cultural variables we examine. Thus, the attitudinal response to immigration differs significantly across countries, a finding that is relevant to attempts to manage the social and political consequences of large immigration inflows.