Brothers or invaders? How crisis-driven migrants shape voting behavior

Sandra Rozo and Juan Vargas

Journal of Development Economics, 2021, vol. 150, issue C

Abstract: We study the electoral effects of the arrival of 1.3 million Venezuelan refugees in Colombia as a consequence of the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis. We exploit the fact that forced migrants disproportionately locate in places with earlier settlements of Venezuelans after the intensification of the crisis. We find that larger migration shocks increase voter’s turnout and shift votes from left-to right-wing political ideologies. These effects are predominantly driven by voter’s concerns on the economic effects of migrants as well as by a novel channel that we call strategic electoral misinformation, whereby political parties make the forced migration shock salient to voters in order to demonize the political agenda of competitors.

Keywords: Immigration; Electoral outcomes; Political economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 F2 O15 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (48)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Brothers or Invaders? How Crises-Driven Migrants Shape Voting Behavior (2019)
Working Paper: Brothers or Invaders? How Crisis-driven Migrants Shape Voting Behavior (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:150:y:2021:i:c:s0304387821000158

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2021.102636

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