Laboratory

Migration and Mobility

At a Glance Projects Publications Team

Project

The Interplay Between Refugee Inflows, Anti-Immigrant Attitudes, and the Well-Being of Immigrants

Chia-Jung Tsai, Robert Gordon Rinderknecht, Emilio Zagheni; in Collaboration with John Palmer (Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain)

Detailed Description

Europe has been experiencing large-scale immigration for decades. It has been debated whether, how, and to what extent anti-immigrant sentiments of residents are associated with changes in the levels and rates of immigration in contemporary European societies. The so-called “refugee crisis” in Europe has triggered hostility toward outgroups, favored the rise of far-right support, and may have affected the lives of millions of immigrants. This project improves our understanding of the factors that affect anti-immigrant sentiments and it provides deeper insights into the impact of attitudes on immigrants’ health and well-being. We shed new light on the underlying mechanisms by combining a number of data sources and by using online survey experiments.

A key goal is to assess the relationships between immigration, anti-immigrant attitudes, and the well-being of settled immigrants. We address three separate but interrelated main issues: (i) the effect of refugee inflows and media coverage on attitudes toward immigrants, (ii) the effect of the sex ratio of the refugee population on the perception of immigrants, and (iii) the effect of anti-immigrant sentiments on the health and well-being of settled immigrants.

First, we combine survey data (e.g., from the German Socio-Economic Panel) with digital trace data from the Gdelt Event Database. Gdelt is a real-time open database that collects news from news media all over the world, thus allowing researchers to study the tone and sentiments of news events. We leverage the Gdelt Event data to measure the media salience of immigration and investigate how this salience amplifies the effect of the refugee presence on anti-immigrant attitudes. Our results suggest that the amplification effect of media salience is particularly significant in the states of former East Germany.  

Second, we plan to examine the mechanisms underlying potentially negative public opinion toward outgroups. We conduct a vignette survey experiment to investigate the extent to which the sex ratio of the refugee population shapes the perceived threats toward these populations in Germany. We consider four different dimensions of threat: economic threat, cultural threat, security, and courtship. Respondents are recruited via targeted Facebook advertisements to reach a wide sample of respondents across various demographic and geographic subgroups.

Third, we assess the impact of attitudes toward immigrants on the health and well-being of immigrants. We measure public attitudes toward outgroups by using survey data and digital trace data, and we assess the extent to which attitudes toward immigrants have an impact on their physical and mental health. 

As Germany has become one of the most popular destinations for refugees and immigrants in Europe, we focus initially on Germany and then expand to other European countries. Our research results will contribute to a deeper understanding of the social and political dynamics surrounding immigration in contemporary Europe. Similarly, it will provide insights that help address the challenges and opportunities of immigration for both native residents and settled immigrants.

Publications

Tsai, C.-J.; Rinderknecht, R. G.; Zagheni, E.:

The interplay between refugee inflows and media coverage in determining attitudes towards immigration in Germany

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2023-035. (2023)