The 2015 refugee inflow and concerns over immigration

Katia Gallegos Torres

No 21-102, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: How did the large asylum-seeker inflow to Germany in 2015 affect concerns about immigration? Using individual-level panel data for the years 2012-2018, I show that after 2015 concerns about immigration increased by about 21 pp. and support for extreme right-wing parties by about 1.7 pp. These trends show considerable heterogeneity for different demographic groups. Using a policy that allocates asylum- seekers to districts I identify the effect of exposure to asylum-seekers. In line with the contact hypothesis, living in a high refugee migration district reduced concerns about immigration by 3 pp. The effect appears larger for right- leaning respondents but is otherwise similar across demographic groups.

Keywords: immigration; refugees; attitudes; concerns about immigration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 J15 P16 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:21102

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