Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/196752 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12254
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
For decades, countries aspiring to join the European Union (EU) have been linked to it through migration. Yet little is known about how migration affects individual support for joining the EU in prospective member states. We explore the relationship between migration and support for EU accession in the Western Balkans. Using data from the Gallup Balkan Monitor survey, we find that prospective and return migrants, as well as people with relatives abroad, are more likely to vote favourably in a hypothetical EU referendum. At the same time, only people with relatives abroad are more likely to consider EU membership a good thing. Our results suggest that migration affects attitudes toward joining the EU principally through instrumental/utilitarian motives, with channels related to information and cosmopolitanism playing only a minor role. Overall, our study suggests that migration fosters support for joining a supranational organization in the migrants' countries of origin, which, in turn, is likely to affect political and institutional development of these countries.
Subjects: 
migration
return migration
European Union
european integration
Western Balkans
JEL: 
F22
F24
J61
O52
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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