Abstract
Research on political reception contexts has shown how they shape societal outcomes, such as immigrant integration and public opinion. However, little is known about how these contexts affect bureaucratic discrimination of mobile individuals. We analyze bureaucratic discrimination against different mobile EU workers using conjoint experiments in Denmark, Ireland, Spain, and Switzerland, with data from both bureaucrats and the general public. This is a least-likely case for discrimination because of equal legal status under EU citizenship and generally more favorable public attitudes compared to non-EU migrants. Using hierarchical Bayesian conjoint analyses, we demonstrate that political reception contexts matter in many ways: The intention to favor culturally proximate applicants-for example, French applicants over Bulgarians or fluent speakers in the host language-is associated with perceived differences in national integration policy regimes and attitudes toward mobile EU citizens and immigrants in general. While bureaucrats and the public exhibit very similar discrimination patterns, which challenge assumptions of bureaucratic neutrality, this tendency to "migrantize" mobile EU-citizens is slightly weaker among bureaucrats than the general public. The results highlight how the perception of political reception contexts can shape administrative practices and reinforce inequalities even within the EU's free movement framework, revealing a gap between policy on paper and practice in intra-EU mobility. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40878-026-00536-5.