The B.E.Journal of Economic Analysis Policy,Vol.7 [2007],Iss.I (Advances),Art.62 on local unemployment and ethnic composition. We allow responses of the native population to differ along various di- mensions.We distinguish between different occupation groups (separating manual and non-manual workers),and different education groups(separating low,medium and high education groups).This allows us to directly investi- gate the association of cultural and racial prejudice,labour market concerns, and welfare concerns with preferences towards more immigration across dif- ferent skill levels.We therefore use a more direct approach than Scheve and Slaughter(2001)in assessing whether the differences in relative preferences to- wards further immigration across skill groups are compatible with predictions of equilibrium trade and labour market models.Furthermore,the distinction made in our data between immigrants of different ethnic and cultural back- grounds,allows us to assess the relative association of each of these factors with preferences towards further immigration for different skill groups,and across immigrant populations of different ethnic and cultural dissimilarity. Our findings are interesting and novel in several respects.First,our descrip- tive evidence shows that opposition towards further immigration is strongly related to the proposed origin of immigrants,with much larger resistance the more ethnically distinct the immigrant population is.Second,we establish that welfare concerns are generally a more important driver of attitudes than labour market concerns,in particular towards groups with a high welfare de- pendence.These views are strongest among respondents who are likely to be the biggest contributors if immigration,as sometimes suggested by those most hostile,induces a tax-financed increase in welfare dependency.Our analysis also shows that racial/cultural prejudice is an important underlying channel through which overall attitudes are driven,in particular for the low skilled. The structure of the paper is as follows.Section 2 outlines our econometric model,and explains estimation and identification of the parameters.Section 3 provides a brief overview of migration to the UK,documents skills and occu- pational achievements of immigrants,and discusses the data we use.Section 4 provides some descriptive evidence.Section 5 presents and discusses results, and section 6 concludes. http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol7/iss1/art62on local unemployment and ethnic composition. We allow responses of the native population to di§er along various di￾mensions. We distinguish between di§erent occupation groups (separating manual and non-manual workers), and di§erent education groups (separating low, medium and high education groups). This allows us to directly investi￾gate the association of cultural and racial prejudice, labour market concerns, and welfare concerns with preferences towards more immigration across dif￾ferent skill levels. We therefore use a more direct approach than Scheve and Slaughter (2001) in assessing whether the di§erences in relative preferences to￾wards further immigration across skill groups are compatible with predictions of equilibrium trade and labour market models. Furthermore, the distinction made in our data between immigrants of di§erent ethnic and cultural back￾grounds, allows us to assess the relative association of each of these factors with preferences towards further immigration for di§erent skill groups, and across immigrant populations of di§erent ethnic and cultural dissimilarity. Our Öndings are interesting and novel in several respects. First, our descrip￾tive evidence shows that opposition towards further immigration is strongly related to the proposed origin of immigrants, with much larger resistance the more ethnically distinct the immigrant population is. Second, we establish that welfare concerns are generally a more important driver of attitudes than labour market concerns, in particular towards groups with a high welfare de￾pendence. These views are strongest among respondents who are likely to be the biggest contributors if immigration, as sometimes suggested by those most hostile, induces a tax-Önanced increase in welfare dependency. Our analysis also shows that racial/cultural prejudice is an important underlying channel through which overall attitudes are driven, in particular for the low skilled. The structure of the paper is as follows. Section 2 outlines our econometric model, and explains estimation and identiÖcation of the parameters. Section 3 provides a brief overview of migration to the UK, documents skills and occu￾pational achievements of immigrants, and discusses the data we use. Section 4 provides some descriptive evidence. Section 5 presents and discusses results, and section 6 concludes. 4 The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, Vol. 7 [2007], Iss. 1 (Advances), Art. 62 http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol7/iss1/art62