The seminar will be held in English.

The Hamburg Political Science Seminar Series (HPS³) features international speakers presenting cutting-edge research in all subfields of political science.

We welcome on

Wednesday, January 27, 2027 - 16:30-18:00 CET in Von-Melle-Park 9 (VMP9) S27

Charlotte Cavaillé (Toulouse School of Economics)

Title: Is High-Skilled Immigration Universally More Popular? Evidence from Singapore
Authors: Charlotte Cavaillé and Rebecca Wai

Abstract:
Research on immigration preferences has documented a remarkably consistent bias in favor of high-skilled immigrants, often interpreted as evidence of a universal “immigration consensus.” We argue that this pattern is partly contingent on institutional context. In Singapore, social rights are sharply stratified by skill and the welfare state is weakly redistributive, making low-skilled immigrants less fiscally burdensome and high-skilledimmigrants more likely to compete with citizens for congestible public goods. Using an original two-wave survey of Singaporean citizens, we show that the conventional preference ranking not only fails to replicate but reverses: respondents are more supportive of low-skilled than high-skilled immigration. Consistent with a fiscal interpretation, Singaporeans understand these differences in social rights and perceive high-skilled immigrants as having a morenegative impact on citizens’ disposable income. A follow-up survey finds limited evidence that generalized anti-Indian prejudice explains the reversal, while concerns about labor-market competition and access to public goods are equally salient. These findings challenge claims that high-skilled immigrants are universally preferred and show how social rights and welfare-state design can reshape immigration preferences across contexts.

The HPS³ seminars take place in person at the UHH. Please find the preliminary program (pdf) on the HPS³ Website.

We invite everyone interested to attend the HPS Seminar Series and are looking forward to seeing you. 

No prior registration is needed.