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Family migration is by far the most common pathway of entry into established democracies. It is also a policy area marked by growing cross-country restrictions. Many countries have introduced stricter requirements for family reunification, including economic thresholds, language proficiency and legal status conditions that tie admission to the resident sponsor’s level of integration.

Yet, it remains relatively understudied in research on public attitudes. One reason is its inherent complexity. Unlike other forms of migration, it involves not only prospective migrants seeking entry, but also residents seeking to reunite with family members, thereby combining claims from both “outsiders” and “insiders.”

To capture these dual dimensions, we design a conjoint survey experiment using an innovative dyadic approach. This allows us to analyze how people evaluate both the characteristics of the incoming family member and those of the resident sponsor. By fielding the survey across multiple countries, we can examine how individual-level determinants of attitudes vary across different national contexts.

Publications

Gschwind, L., Wejryd, J., Hultin Rosenberg, J., Ahlén, A., & Borevi, K. (2026). Uncovering Attitudes to Family Migration—A Conjoint Survey Experiment with a Dyadic Approach. International Migration Review, 60(1), 455-468. https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183241293391

Forthcoming

Ahlén, A., Borevi, K., Gschwind, L., Hultin Rosenberg, J., & Wejryd, J. “Universalist Attitudes to Family Migration in Germany, Italy and Sweden: A New ‘Opinion-Policy Gap’.”

Ahlén, A., Borevi, K., Gschwind, L., Hultin Rosenberg, J., & Wejryd, J. “More than “Secondary” Migration? Public Attitudes towards Family Migrants in Germany, Italy, and Sweden.”

Funding

This project was supported by the Swedish Research Council under Grant 2021-02033.