Knowledge of the EU and attitudes towards free movement

Abstract: Does being more knowledgeable about the EU increase support for the free movement of people and, secondly, do more knowledgeable people show less ambivalence in their attitudes towards free movement? These are the questions I want to answer in this thesis. Based on the literature on attitude formation both towards immigration and European integration I conduct a regression analysis using Eurobarometer data from every EU country. Of particular importance is the concept of ‘attitudinal ambivalence’, where respondents hold conflicting opinions towards a subject when different aspects of that subject are primed. This is also the case for the free movement of people: less people support it when the inward mobility of other EU citizens is primed in the survey question. In this thesis I theorise that people who have more knowledge of the EU are more supportive of the freedom of movement and hold less ambivalent attitudes because they realise the inconsistency of their opinions. These predictions are supported by the results of the regression analysis, providing evidence that knowledge is an interesting variable in attitudinal research. Furthermore, this thesis contributes to the rather new field of attitudinal research into the free movement of people.