Gender differences in the perception of immigration-related threats

•Gender moderates the effects of immigration-related specific threats (crime, etc.) on the perception of general threat.•Native women related the crime threat to a general threat more than did their male counterparts.•Among first-generation immigrants, gender moderated the effect of the cultural and out-group size threats.•Among second-generation immigrants, men and women differed with respect to the job, cultural and out-group size threats.

Although many studies have concluded that men and women differ in their attitudes towards immigrants, no research has yet examined the mechanisms behind these differences. This paper provides an analysis of how specific immigration-related perceived threats (job competition, threats to the majority culture, sustainability of the welfare system, and out-group size) are associated with perceptions of a general, immigration-related threat among men and women in Luxembourg. In analyses conducted separately for residents with different migratory backgrounds, we found that native women had a greater tendency than their male counterparts to associate the threat of crime with a general threat. Among first-generation immigrants, men put more emphasis on the out-group size threat, whereas women placed greater stress on the importance of the culture threat. Among second-generation immigrants, men and women differed with respect to their perception of job, cultural, and out-group size threats.