Democratic Discrepancy: Immigrants and Politics in Europe

Over the past decade, the EU has experienced an unprecedented influx of migrants, many from authoritarian regimes. Are these new migrants more or less likely to support democracy in their new countries? We address this question by analysing first-generation migrants using pooled data from six European Social Surveys conducted between 2010 and 2020 and the Varieties of Democracy dataset. Our findings show limited support for migrants from authoritarian regimes having weaker democratic commitment than those born in the country, or for those socialised in democratic countries having stronger commitment. Instead, migrants from less democratic countries report higher satisfaction with host-country democracy. This effect is especially strong among non-EU migrants, who experience greater democratic discrepancies than EU migrants, who encounter fewer differences due to similar democratic standards across EU countries. These findings inform scholarly debates on migrant political socialisation and offer policy insights for EU immigrant settlement and integration.