Region of origin or religion? Understanding why immigrants from Muslim-majority countries are discriminated against in Western Europe Claire L. Adida∗ David D. Laitin† Marie-Anne Valfort‡ February 17, 2014 Abstract There is widespread evidence that immigrants from Muslim-majority countries are discriminated against in Western Europe, relative to immigrants from European Christian-majority countries. Yet, it is not clear whether this discrimination is based on religion (Muslim), region of origin (since the bulk of Muslim-majority countries are located in regions outside Europe), or both. Relying on European Social Survey data and an identification strategy that seeks to separate religion from region of origin, our findings indicate that religion rather than region of origin explains such discrimination. Keywords: Discrimination, International migration, Islam, Europe. JEL: F22, J71, Z12. ∗University of California, San Diego. Department of Political Science. Social Sciences Building 301. 9500 Gilman Drive, ♯0521. La Jolla, CA 92093-0521. USA. E-mail:
[email protected]. †Stanford University. Department of Political Science. 100 Encina Hall. Stanford, CA 94305-6044. USA. E-mail:
[email protected]. ‡Corresponding author. Paris School of Economics - Paris 1 Panth´eon Sorbonne University. 106-112, Boulevard de l’Hˆopital. 75013 Paris. France. E-mail:
[email protected]. Phone: 33(0)1 44 07 81 94. 1 Introduction Many correspondence tests1 have shown that immigrants from Muslim-majority countries2 are discriminated against in Western European labor markets,3 relative to immigrants from European Christian-majority countries.4 For instance, MacIntosh and Smith (1974) and Firth (1981) show that immigrants of Pakistani origin are more discriminated against in the British labour market than are immigrants of Italian and French origin.5 More recently, Hainmueller and Hangartner (2013) have analyzed the outcomes of naturalization referenda in Switzerland.