Googling immigration: The associations between search behavior, immigration levels and migration attitudes

[EN] Google Trends has garnered scholarly attention for its application in fields such as disease spread, consumption patterns, or voting behavior. However, research concerning ethnic attitudes is limited, with most literature concentrating on racist searches in the United States, thereby neglecting...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Mariscal-De-Gante, Álvaro
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/394976
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/394976
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85216858712
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Google Trends
Immigration
Immigration attitudes
Migration policy
Xenophobia
http://metadata.un.org/sdg/10
Reduce inequality within and among countries
Inmigración
Política migratoria
xenofobia
id ES_50fc74009ba4b06bf7a949d307f3eb6a
oai_identifier_str oai:digital.csic.es:10261/394976
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Googling immigration: The associations between search behavior, immigration levels and migration attitudes
Googleando la inmigración: Asociaciones entre el comportamiento de búsqueda, los niveles de inmigración y las actitudes hacia la inmigración
title Googling immigration: The associations between search behavior, immigration levels and migration attitudes
spellingShingle Googling immigration: The associations between search behavior, immigration levels and migration attitudes
Mariscal-De-Gante, Álvaro
Google Trends
Immigration
Immigration attitudes
Migration policy
Xenophobia
http://metadata.un.org/sdg/10
Reduce inequality within and among countries
Inmigración
Inmigración
Política migratoria
xenofobia
title_short Googling immigration: The associations between search behavior, immigration levels and migration attitudes
title_full Googling immigration: The associations between search behavior, immigration levels and migration attitudes
title_fullStr Googling immigration: The associations between search behavior, immigration levels and migration attitudes
title_full_unstemmed Googling immigration: The associations between search behavior, immigration levels and migration attitudes
title_sort Googling immigration: The associations between search behavior, immigration levels and migration attitudes
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Mariscal-De-Gante, Álvaro
author Mariscal-De-Gante, Álvaro
author_facet Mariscal-De-Gante, Álvaro
author_role author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Ministerio de Universidades (España)
Mariscal-de-Gante, Álvaro [0000-0001-8917-2746]
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [https://ror.org/02gfc7t72]
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Google Trends
Immigration
Immigration attitudes
Migration policy
Xenophobia
http://metadata.un.org/sdg/10
Reduce inequality within and among countries
Inmigración
Inmigración
Política migratoria
xenofobia
topic Google Trends
Immigration
Immigration attitudes
Migration policy
Xenophobia
http://metadata.un.org/sdg/10
Reduce inequality within and among countries
Inmigración
Inmigración
Política migratoria
xenofobia
description [EN] Google Trends has garnered scholarly attention for its application in fields such as disease spread, consumption patterns, or voting behavior. However, research concerning ethnic attitudes is limited, with most literature concentrating on racist searches in the United States, thereby neglecting immigration and European contexts. Furthermore, no previous studies have contrasted search patterns with explicit survey measures of racial or antiimmigrant prejudice. This study intends to fill these gaps by examining the case of Spain to explore whether and which Google searches about immigration are associated with migration attitudes and/or immigration levels. Based on a panel regionlevel database from 2010 to 2022, we applied Fixed-Effects OLS regression models to contrast search behavior with European Social Survey and/or Spanish Population register data. Queries related to immigrants are significantly more prevalent in areas with higher proportions of immigrants that are often othered. Furthermore, queries concerning the number of people of in the country are consistently associated with restrictive migration policy preferences regarding immigrant influxes, in line with longstanding survey research on negative attitudes and perceived demographic threat. Even if prone to false positives, this suggests that a surge in certain queries regarding immigrant volumes could serve as a useful, free, real-time tool for detecting potential shifts regarding restrictive immigration policy preferences.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
2025
2025
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
Publisher's version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10261/394976
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85216858712
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/394976
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85216858712
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE#
FPU19/02168
https://doi.org/10.14198/obets.27886
Sí
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Universidad de Alicante
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Universidad de Alicante
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
instname_str Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
reponame_str DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
collection DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
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spelling Googling immigration: The associations between search behavior, immigration levels and migration attitudesGoogleando la inmigración: Asociaciones entre el comportamiento de búsqueda, los niveles de inmigración y las actitudes hacia la inmigraciónMariscal-De-Gante, ÁlvaroGoogle TrendsImmigrationImmigration attitudesMigration policyXenophobiahttp://metadata.un.org/sdg/10Reduce inequality within and among countriesInmigraciónInmigraciónPolítica migratoriaxenofobia[EN] Google Trends has garnered scholarly attention for its application in fields such as disease spread, consumption patterns, or voting behavior. However, research concerning ethnic attitudes is limited, with most literature concentrating on racist searches in the United States, thereby neglecting immigration and European contexts. Furthermore, no previous studies have contrasted search patterns with explicit survey measures of racial or antiimmigrant prejudice. This study intends to fill these gaps by examining the case of Spain to explore whether and which Google searches about immigration are associated with migration attitudes and/or immigration levels. Based on a panel regionlevel database from 2010 to 2022, we applied Fixed-Effects OLS regression models to contrast search behavior with European Social Survey and/or Spanish Population register data. Queries related to immigrants are significantly more prevalent in areas with higher proportions of immigrants that are often othered. Furthermore, queries concerning the number of people of in the country are consistently associated with restrictive migration policy preferences regarding immigrant influxes, in line with longstanding survey research on negative attitudes and perceived demographic threat. Even if prone to false positives, this suggests that a surge in certain queries regarding immigrant volumes could serve as a useful, free, real-time tool for detecting potential shifts regarding restrictive immigration policy preferences.[ES] Google Trends ha captado la atención académica por su aplicación en campos como la propagación de enfermedades, los patrones de consumo o el comportamiento electoral. Sin embargo, la investigación sobre actitudes en materia étnica es limitada, y la mayoría de la literatura se centra en términos de búsqueda racistas en Estados Unidos, descuidando así la inmigración y los países europeos. Además, ningún estudio hasta la fecha ha contrastado patrones de búsqueda con medidas explícitas de encuesta sobre prejuicio racial o antinmigrante. Este estudio examina el caso de España para explorar en qué medida (y cuáles de) las búsquedas en Google sobre inmigración están asociadas con actitudes en materia migratoria y/o niveles de población inmigrante. A partir de datos panel a nivel regional desde 2010 hasta 2022, se utilizaron modelos de regresión OLS de efectos fijos para contrastar si el comportamiento de búsqueda está relacionado con datos de la Encuesta Social Europea y/o del Padrón de Habitantes. Las búsquedas sobre inmigrantes son significativamente más prevalentes en áreas con mayores proporciones de personas nacidas en el extranjero con características fenotípicas distintivas. Asimismo, algunas búsquedas sobre el número de personas inmigrantes en el país están consistentemente asociadas a preferencias restrictivas en política migratoria, en línea con investigación consolidada sobre la relación entre actitudes negativas y percepciones de amenaza demográfica. Aunque fueran propensas a falsos positivos, estos resultados sugieren que el auge de ciertas búsquedas sobre el volumen de población inmigrante podría servir como una herramienta útil para detectar potenciales cambios respecto a las preferencias en política migratoria sin coste y en tiempo real.We would like to thank Sebastian Rinken, Florian Keusch, Lukas Warode, Frieder Rodewald, Johanna Hölzl and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Universities under Grant nº FPU19/02168.Peer reviewedUniversidad de AlicanteMinisterio de Universidades (España)Mariscal-de-Gante, Álvaro [0000-0001-8917-2746]Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [https://ror.org/02gfc7t72]202520252025info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501Publisher's versioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10261/394976https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85216858712reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSICinstname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)Inglés#PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE#FPU19/02168https://doi.org/10.14198/obets.27886Síinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:digital.csic.es:10261/3949762026-05-22T06:33:51Z
score 15.81155

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