You might think that most people have misperceptions about immigration. Yet many false beliefs are merely low-confidence guesses, rather than firmly held views. Drawing on new Swiss survey evidence, Philipp Lutz and Marco Bitschnau show that this distinction has important implications for understanding public opinion, and for the quality of democratic debate
Most people hold deep-seated misperceptions about immigration, painting its nature, effects, and governance in excessively dark colours. This reflects concerns about out-group threat and tends to be resistant to correction efforts. It is also, argue Marco Bitschnau and Philipp Lutz, highly problematic for democracies
Western countries repeatedly point to resettlement – the organised transfer of refugees to a safe third country – as a solution to persistent humanitarian crises. Yet, Philipp Lutz and Lea Portmann show how such resettlement can, paradoxically, be a way for states to legitimise limiting access to humanitarian protection
In 2019, Philipp earned a PhD from the University of Bern studying the migration policy-making of liberal democracies.
Previously, he has been a visiting researcher at the European University Institute in Florence and a program director of the foreign policy think-tank 'foraus'.
His main research interest lies in understanding the political consequences of international migration and covers comparative politics as well as international governance.
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