Immigration and Redistribution.

The article investigates how perceptions of immigrants influence support for redistribution policies across six developed countries (France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the UK, and the US) through large-scale surveys and experiments involving about 24,000 non-immigrant respondents. It finds widespread misperceptions: respondents overestimate the share of immigrants, perceive them as culturally and religiously more distant, economically weaker, and more reliant on welfare than reality. Making immigration salient reduces support for redistribution, primarily driven by beliefs that immigrants free-ride on welfare and are economically disadvantaged, while perceived cultural distance and immigrant share have smaller effects. Experimental treatments providing factual information about immigrant shares and origins do not increase support for redistribution, whereas a narrative emphasizing immigrants' hard work partially offsets the negative priming effect but does not fully reverse it. The study concludes that narratives and salience shape attitudes toward immigration and redistribution more deeply than factual information, with implications for political debates and policy preferences.