In recent years, inequalities in residential environments have received much attention as an explanation for the appeal of anti-immigration parties across advanced democracies. This paper explores the long-term association between neighbourhood context in adolescence and attitudes towards immigration later in life, drawing on a UK-based cohort study matched with fine-grained census data on neighbourhood composition. Drawing on the premises of the impressionable years hypothesis and contact theory, we posit that as a space of socialisation, the local area that one experiences in adolescence is influential to the development of immigration attitudes. Our findings suggest that the share of immigrants in one’s neighbourhood during adolescence has a persistent association with political attitudes among the ethnic majority. Specifically, growing up in an immigrant-dense neighbourhood in Britain is associated with greater tolerance toward immigrants 18 years later, net of parental characteristics in adolescence and individual and residential characteristics in adulthood. These findings highlight the role of early-years socialization experiences in the formation of out-group attitudes; and the importance of diversity and inter-group contact for fostering tolerant societies.
