Hate is too great a burden to bear: Hate crimes and the mental health of refugees

Arbeitspapier

Against a background of increasing violence against non-natives, we estimate the effect of hate crime on refugees' mental health in Germany. For this purpose, we combine two datasets: administrative records on xenophobic crime against refugee shelters by the Federal Criminal Office and the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees. We apply a regression discontinuity design in time to estimate the effect of interest. Our results indicate that hate crime has a substantial negative effect on several mental health indicators, including the Mental Component Summary score and the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 score. The effects are stronger for refugees with closer geographic proximity to the focal hate crime and refugees with low country-specific human capital. While the estimated effect is only transitory, we argue that negative mental health shocks during the critical period after arrival have important long-term consequences.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research ; No. 1130

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health: General ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; International Migration ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
• Subject: Mental health ; hate crime ; migration ; refugees ; human capital

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Graeber, Daniel ; Schikora, Felicitas
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2021

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/234458
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET