The so-called (PE)GIDA protests and the increasing number of immigrants and refugees coming to Germany have been dominating public and political debates in Germany for more than a year. A central issue is the question who shall be welcome in Germany and who not. A study by Christian Czymara and Alexander Schmidt-Catran takes up this dispute by investigating which characteristics determine the public acceptance of immigrants. To this end, they conducted a factorial survey where respondents had to rate 14 fictitious immigrants. They differentiate respondents’ acceptance along three dimensions: the general right to live in Germany, the right to seek employment in Germany, and the right to receive social benefits from the German welfare state.

Generally, the surveyed sample has a rather positive view on immigrants, many even accepted all 14 fictitious immigrants regardless of their actual characteristics. But a significant amount of respondents also universally rejected all immigrants. The latter is especially true for the right to receive social benefits from the German welfare state, whereas respondents almost consensually agreed on giving immigrants the possibility to work in Germany.

Investigating the effects of an immigrant’s characteristics on her or his acceptance, the study shows that an immigrant’s perceived impact on society as well as on the national economy plays a key role: higher qualification, good skills in the German language, and a prospective job all significantly increase an immigrant’s likelihood of being accepted on all three dimensions. Anticipated competition on the labor market and economic self-interest, on the other hand, fail to predict respondent’s acceptance.

Most acceptance, however, is shown toward individuals who flee from political persecution. This points to the possibility that sympathy may be able to reduce considerations about an immigrant’s profitability under certain circumstances. Non-economic aspects are important, too: individuals from France, which is arguably culturally more similar to Germany, have a higher likelihood of being accepted as compared to those coming from Kenia or Lebanon. Furthermore, Muslims were significantly less accepted than Christians or non-religious immigrants.