Sharing citizenship: economic competition, cultural threat, and immigration preferences in the rentier state

Abstract This paper proposes a framework of immigrant acceptance that accounts for both group-level and individual-level characteristics conducts novel test the cultural threat hypothesis. Immigrants’ individual traits are conceptualized as secondary to their identity-based claims. The empirical strategy leverages set survey experiments conducted in extreme rentier state Qatar, where naturalization poses tangible negative financial consequences citizens by expanding pool government welfare beneficiaries. Findings demonstrate willing share citizenship with narrow ethnic in-group while economic attributes lower-order determinants influencing economically vulnerable citizens. Importantly, answers direct measures at odds these findings, demonstrating susceptibility social desirability bias.