Migrants, religion, and politics: an imperfect combination. The strange case of the Italians in time of migration

How do Italians perceive immigrants? Over the last twenty years, the issue of immigration has become increas-ingly relevant. With the intensification of landings, the issues connected to immigration have become elements of conflict and confrontation both in civil society and in politics. Among the various determinants that explain attitudes towards immigration, religion appears to play a very important role in orienting public opinion. Using some information collected by the European Values survey (2012; 2016-2018) and adopting different regres-sion models, it emerges that among Catholics, a closed attitude towards immigrants prevails. Nevertheless, something seems to have changed over time because when the religious practice of Catholics intensifies, the anti-immigrant sentiment declines. A contraction of anti-immigrant sentiment is found also when practising Cath-olics vote for a populist party