Language, long term orientation and immigrants' perception of immigration

In this thesis, I use the European Social Survey from the year 2002 until 2020 to examine the perception of immigration of the first generation immigrants in Europe based on their linguistic time reference. I test the hypothesis that the first generation immigrants who speak languages where the use of a future marker, like “will” in English, is not necessary tend to develop more favorable opinions towards immigration. In other words, the individuals who speak a weak future time reference (Weak FTR) may perceive that future rewards are closer to the present and so they may perceive that the long term benefits of immigration are closer. The results suggest that first generation immigrants who speak a weak FTR develop more favorable opinions about immigration than those who speak a strong FTR.