Immigration Shocks and Shifting Social Group Boundaries

Zohal Hessami and Sebastian Schirner (sebastian.schirner@rub.de)
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Sebastian Schirner: Ruhr University Bochum

No 17343, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study whether the arrival of a new immigrant wave changes natives' acceptance of former immigrants and their descendants. We exploit the 2015 European refugee crisis and the context of German open-list local council elections where voting for immigrant-origin candidates represents a consequential revealed preference. We combine hand-collected candidate-level election data with administrative asylum seeker data. Continuous difference-in-differences estimations (based on municipal %∆ in asylum seekers) reveal that immigrant-origin candidates receive more votes the more asylum seekers arrived locally. This shift in social group boundaries is driven by candidates with a Southern/Eastern European origin being culturally similar to Germans.

Keywords: immigration; immigrant-origin candidates; local elections; social acceptance; cultural similarity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 F22 J11 J15 N34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 65 pages
Date: 2024-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-int, nep-mig, nep-pol and nep-ure
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