Although various theories have been put forward to explain immigration attitudes, the relative effectiveness and impact of these explanations has not been tested on vulnerable groups in a society. The current paper addresses this empirical gap by assessing whether the contact, threat and marginality theories can explain the immigration preferences of ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom. Using the 2002 United Kingdom component of the European Social Survey, empirical evidence are brought forward to indicate, perhaps counter-intuitively, that contact with immigrants has no significant effect on the way ethnic minorities perceive immigration. Marginality and threat, on the other hand, are both powerful, albeit opposite, predictors of immigration attitudes within ethnic minority communities in the UK. Of these two, threat is the most consistent predictor of attitudes.
