Strangers in Hostile Lands: Exposure to Refugees and Right-Wing Support in Germany’s Eastern Regions

Artikel

Does local exposure to refugees increase right-wing support? This paper studies a case uniquely suited to address this question: the allocation of refugees to the rural hinterlands of eastern Germany during the European refugee crisis. Similar to non-urban regions elsewhere, the area has had minimal previous exposure to foreigners, but distinctively leans towards the political right. Our data comprise electoral outcomes, and individual-level survey and behavioral measures. A policy allocating refugees following strict administrative rules and a matching procedure allow for causal identification. Our measurements confirm the presence of widespread anti-immigrant sentiments. However, these are unaffected by the presence of refugees in respondents’ hometowns: on average, we record null effects for all outcomes, which we interpret as supporting a sociotropic perspective on immigration attitudes. Masked by these overall null findings, we observe convergence: local exposure to refugees appears to have pulled both right- and left-leaning individuals more towards the center.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal: Comparative Political Studies ; ISSN: 1552-3829 ; Volume: 54 ; Year: 2021 ; Issue: 3-4 ; Pages: 686-717 ; Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft
• Subject: right-wing support ; refugees ; Germany ; immigration

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Schaub, Max ; Gereke, Johanna ; Baldassarri, Delia
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Sage
• (where): Thousand Oaks, CA
• (when): 2021

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.1177/0010414020957675
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/227775
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET