Generation Matters: The Role of Migration and Generational Status for Distributive Justice Preferences

People judge existing economic inequality based on distributive justice principles such as merit,equality, and need. The degree to which they support these principles—their distributive justicepreferences—and the ensuing judgment of inequality as just or unjust differ across socialgroups. Scholars have identified social positions within the social structure, such as socio-economic status, as factors driving such differences. However, social structures are not sealed-offsystems. In a globalizing world, they are increasingly shaped by migration movements. So far,relatively little attention has so far been paid to migration experiences as a factor potentiallyunderlying different perspectives on distributive justice. Integrating the insight from migrationscholarship that generation matters, this study explores migration background and migrants’generational status as possible factors shaping distributive justice attitudes. Using an originalsurvey in Germany, this study tests whether migrants of different generations hold differentviews than non-migrants. Almost no differences were found with regard to individuals whomoved to Germany as children or grew up in Germany with migrant parents. However, personalexperiences of migration in adolescence or adulthood strongly shape distributive justice preferences. Migrants who moved to Germany after or during adolescence tend to find inequalitymore acceptable and support the equality and need principles less. The paper highlights migrants as an interesting population for empirical justice research. Moreover, it urges justicescholars to differentiate between migrant generations.