You Say Hello and I Say Goodbye? Natives’ Reactions to Openings of Asylum Centers

Nadia Myohl and Sabrina Stadelmann

No 2012, Economics Working Paper Series from University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science

Abstract: We study the sentiments of local residents towards asylum seekers by analyzing location choices in the proximity of asylum centers. We address the key endogeneity issue of immigrant sorting by exploiting the random distribution key that assigns asylum seekers to municipalities in Switzerland. Using individual-level data from the universe of the Swiss population, we find that relative to the overall probability of moving at least once per year, those living within a 500m radius to an open asylum center are 7.96% more likely to move away than those living further away. The effect is driven by renters and highly educated individuals and is larger in right-wing voting municipalities for moves within the same canton. Our results are robust to alternative treatment definitions, sample variation and placebo tests.

Keywords: Asylum seekers; sentiments; regional migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 J15 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 63 pages
Date: 2020-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:usg:econwp:2020:12

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